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SENATOR GERARD RENNICK

Environment

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Are you concerned that in Australia's race to reach Net Zero by 2050, renewable energy will actually damage the environment rather than protect it?

Q. Are you concerned about Net Zero by 2050?

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1. Can the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water provide a comprehensive roadmap of the work required for Australia to meet a 43% reduction in CO2 by 2030. This roadmap should set out the length of transmission lines, the number of transmission towers, the number of solar panels (for a give wattage), the number of wind turbines (for a given wattage), the number of batteries (for a given storage), the amount of lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, concrete, and steel etc. needed to build the aforesaid generators and storage. It will need to include the amount of land needed for solar, wind, transmission and storage products, and the biodiversity offsets. Could the amount of CO2 required to build, recycle, or dispose of the aforementioned items also be included? Likewise, could the cost of building, recycling, and disposing of the aforementioned items also be clearly outlined? Biodiversity impacts such as increased tyre wear due to heavier batteries in cars, increased breaking distance on roadkill, impact on bats and birds from transmission lines and wind turbines, and removal of native flora and fauna due to land use should also be clearly outlined. 2. If the Department cannot provide, can it state which department is responsible for maintaining and tracking the roadmap and refer the question onto them?

21/11/2022

Question Number: 223 PDR Number: SQ22-000282 Date Submitted: 21/11/2022 Department or Body: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water 1. The Australian Government’s Powering Australia plan sets out how it will support and drive change across all sectors

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1. What research is the CSIRO undertaking in regard to using mosquitoes as a way to spread vectors? 2. Referring to this NASA energy diagram http://climateimages.homestead.com/nasa-2.jpg we see a claim that greenhouse gases (GHG) send 324 w/sqm downwards but there is only a total of 165 + 30 = 195 w/sqm going from the atmosphere and clouds upwards to Space. Does the CSIRO agree that the GHG molecules somehow “know” to radiate more downwards than upwards? How does it explain these figures in that NASA energy diagram? 3. The same diagram shows a total of 168 + 324 = 492 w/sqm coming out of the base of the atmosphere and into the surface, whereas the solar radiation that enters the atmosphere after some is reflected back to Space is only 342 – 77 = 265 w/sqm, so how is that 265 somehow increased to 492 w/sqm by the atmosphere as is implied? 4. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann Law calculator at https://coolgyan.org/calculators/stefanboltzmann-law-calculator and entering 1 for emissivity (because reflection by the surface has been deducted) and 168 w/sqm does the CSIRO agree that we get a temperature of about 233.3K (about -40C) for what the Solar radiation could achieve on its own? 5. Using the same calculator, does the CSIRO agree that 342 w/sqm is what would be emitted by a blackbody at about 278.7K (about 5.5C)? 6. Does the CSIRO agree that water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane each only radiate in a few frequencies whereas a blackbody radiates a full spectrum of frequencies? 7. Considering all questions above, is it likely that GHG spread out over the height of the troposphere would radiate as much to the surface as a blackbody at an altitude of only about 1.5Km where the average temperature would be about 278.7K? 8. A climatologist Dr Roy Spencer once admitted that the 324 back radiation figure was not a measurement but merely calculated so that all figures balance. Has the CSIRO any contrary information as to how it was either measured or calculated, noting the fact that it implies that the atmosphere generates energy? 9. Referring to the calculations in the note below the NASA diagram, does the CSIRO agree, using the Stefan-Boltzmann calculator, that the net 390 w/sqm is the (uniform) radiation from a blackbody that would achieve a temperature of about 288.0K namely just under 15C as the global mean surface temperature? 10. Can the CSIRO produce any documentation or experiments that confirm that the StefanBoltzmann Law can be used for the arithmetic sum of radiative fluxes from different sources, such as is implied it can be in the NASA diagram. Does it have any such proof that it can be used and give correct temperatures for such a sum of atmospheric and solar radiation less nonradiative surface cooling? 11. In light of responses to all the above, does the CSIRO agree that the NASA diagram does not represent reality and the surface temperature cannot be quantified with such radiation calculations as are implied (and no doubt used in computer models) by that NASA diagram? 12. In the 1870’s a physicist named Josef Loschmidt explained that gravity forms a temperature gradient in solids, liquids, and gases. Do you agree that Loschmidt was correct? 13. Climatologist Dr Roy Spencer once stated “that a column of air in the troposphere would have been isothermal but for the assumed greenhouse effect.” This is in accord with the “explanation” once appearing on the IPCC website that the solar radiation achieves a temperature of 255K at the “radiating altitude” and that GHG radiation then raises the surface temperature (from what it would have been if the troposphere were isothermal, namely 255K) by 33 degrees to 288K, this being the global mean surface temperature. That would mean that water vapour (the main GHG) does most of those 33 degrees and thus increases the magnitude of the temperature gradient. But it is well known that water vapour reduces the magnitude of the temperature gradient (AKA “lapse rate”) so how do scientists explain this contradiction? 14. It may be shown that the temperature gradient in all planetary tropospheres is a function of the quotient of the acceleration due to the planet’s gravity and the weighted mean specific heat of the gases. This is accurately the case for the planet Uranus where Voyager II made measurements. Yet the base of the 350Km high nominal troposphere of Uranus is estimated to be 320K – hotter than Earth’s mean surface temperature, even though the Solar radiation can achieve only about 53K at the top of that troposphere. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#Troposphere) There is no compelling evidence of net cooling of Uranus and there is no Solar radiation reaching the base of that troposphere and nor any solid surface there, so how do scientists explain the necessary heat input to support such a temperature? 15. Climate change theory appears to explain quite cogently that the “science” upon which it is assumed that carbon dioxide and methane could warm the planet is based on a false supposed application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in that (as implied in climatology energy diagrams) it depends upon the false assumption that radiation from these gases in cool regions of the atmosphere could cause heat transfer into the warmer surface. Why does the CSIRO not believe in the second law of thermodynamics? 16. Albert Einstein in his 1917 paper on the Quantum Theory of Radiation states the radiation is so insignificant as compared with other heat transfers that it drops out. Does the CSIRO believe Albert Einstein is wrong? 17. Won’t convection naturally offset any insignificant impact of radiation as a result of the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

21/11/2022

Question Number: 104 PDR Number: BI-70 Date Submitted: 21/11/2022 Department or Body: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 1. CSIRO researchers are developing new and novel ways to understand mosquitoes and how they spread viruses by:  Use of genomic

Read More »

Transmission lines not costed for 2030 emissions target

08/11/2022

Environment and Communications Legislation Committee07/11/2022EstimatesCLIMATE CHANGE, ENERGY, THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER PORTFOLIOAustralian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner — Yesterday in estimates I asked the government whether or not they had costed the price on installing the required transmission lines to meet their

Read More »

Senator RENNICK: Thank you. In order to get to the 43 per cent reduction by 2030, how many kilometres of transmission lines will need to be built? What will the cost of that be? Mr Dyer: I might consult. Ms Brunoro: We have to bear in mind that is a national target as well. The integrated system plan covers the eastern states. We can come back to you with some more analysis on that. Senator RENNICK: Didn’t you just legislate it? Hasn’t it been legislated now, the 43 per cent reduction by 2030? CHAIR: I think the answer, Senator Rennick, is that the transmission piece you are discussing is not the totality of the elements that will go to achieving the plan. Senator RENNICK: The reason I am asking is 2030 is only eight years away. My understanding is you have to get to 82 per cent renewables on the grid to get your 43 per cent reduction in CO2. Surely we must have a pretty clear plan and strategy in terms of how many transmission lines need to be built between now and 2030 to hook up enough renewables to get it into the grid, which is just eight years away. Ms Brunoro: Yes. We do. I’m happy to table some information about those key projects. Obviously, Marinus is one of them. There has already been an announcement on that. Senator RENNICK: How many kilometres of transmission lines will that involve? Ms Brunoro: Bear with me. I will have to add that up for you. I note that is a point in time estimate as well. Since the integrated system plan has come out, Queensland has already announced their energy security plan. They will be investing in significant transmission. I can give you a breakdown of the number of kilometres per the actual projects as it stands now and that are underway. We can add that up. Senator RENNICK: And that will get to 82 per cent renewables by 2030? Ms Brunoro: The projects we have in train do align with the projects that are in the integrated system plan, a step change scenario. That estimate from the Australian energy market operator is that it will deliver about 83 per cent renewables by 2030. So it is in line. Senator RENNICK: You can put a cost to that as well? Have we got an estimated cost of that? Ms Brunoro: We can pull out the estimated costs of those projects as they are going through the regulatory impact tests at the moment. Senator RENNICK: Sure. Ms Brunoro: And give a breakdown of them.

07/11/2022

Question Number: 68 PDR Number: SQ22-000198 Date Submitted: 07/11/2022 Department or Body: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water Under the step change scenario in the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)’s 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP), the renewable

Read More »

Senator RENNICK: That is fair enough. I am curious because the GenCost report is often used as the basis to say that renewables are cheaper. But there’s actually a lot of what I consider flawed assumptions in there, one of them being that you don’t need any more transmission lines until renewables hit 50 per cent of the grid and there’s no recycling costs taken into account. So that is a comment. You don’t need to respond to that. In terms of all the transmission lines that you need to get built between now and 2030 to get to 82 per cent of renewables, have you got approvals for all that from the various landholders? CHAIR: Senator Rennick, I wonder whether Ms Brunoro will take this on notice. There is a lot of detail in what you are asking. Senator RENNICK: Well, we’re in estimates. That is what it is all about—asking for the detail. CHAIR: But rather than her sitting there and adding everything up from her notes, would you be happy to take that further detail on notice? Senator RENNICK: What I would like to know is how far progressed you are in terms of getting the relevant and required approvals from both landholders and state governments and various other bodies—national parks or whatever it may have to be—in order to get those transmission lines built by 2030. Ms Brunoro: The short answer I will provide is that those projects are at different stages of development and approval out to 2030. Some of those that are slated to be delivered in the latter part of the decade will be going through the engagement and consultation processes at a later point in time. Clearly, some of those arrangements are going to change with respect to the various landholders when we get there. We can let you know which projects have had engagement with the community and which ones are to come.

07/11/2022

Question Number: 69 PDR Number: SQ22-000199 Date Submitted: 07/11/2022 Department or Body: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)’s 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP) is a comprehensive roadmap for the National Electricity

Read More »

1. Can the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water provide a comprehensive roadmap of the work required for Australia to meet a 43% reduction in CO2 by 2030. This roadmap should set out the length of transmission lines, the number of transmission towers, the number of solar panels (for a give wattage), the number of wind turbines (for a given wattage), the number of batteries (for a given storage), the amount of lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, concrete, and steel etc. needed to build the aforesaid generators and storage. It will need to include the amount of land needed for solar, wind, transmission and storage products, and the biodiversity offsets. Could the amount of CO2 required to build, recycle, or dispose of the aforementioned items also be included? Likewise, could the cost of building, recycling, and disposing of the aforementioned items also be clearly outlined? Biodiversity impacts such as increased tyre wear due to heavier batteries in cars, increased breaking distance on roadkill, impact on bats and birds from transmission lines and wind turbines, and removal of native flora and fauna due to land use should also be clearly outlined. 2. If the Department cannot provide, can it state which department is responsible for maintaining and tracking the roadmap and refer the question onto them?

21/11/2022

Question Number: 223 PDR Number: SQ22-000282 Date Submitted: 21/11/2022 Department or Body: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water 1. The Australian Government’s Powering Australia plan sets out how it will support and drive change across all sectors

Read More »

1. What research is the CSIRO undertaking in regard to using mosquitoes as a way to spread vectors? 2. Referring to this NASA energy diagram http://climateimages.homestead.com/nasa-2.jpg we see a claim that greenhouse gases (GHG) send 324 w/sqm downwards but there is only a total of 165 + 30 = 195 w/sqm going from the atmosphere and clouds upwards to Space. Does the CSIRO agree that the GHG molecules somehow “know” to radiate more downwards than upwards? How does it explain these figures in that NASA energy diagram? 3. The same diagram shows a total of 168 + 324 = 492 w/sqm coming out of the base of the atmosphere and into the surface, whereas the solar radiation that enters the atmosphere after some is reflected back to Space is only 342 – 77 = 265 w/sqm, so how is that 265 somehow increased to 492 w/sqm by the atmosphere as is implied? 4. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann Law calculator at https://coolgyan.org/calculators/stefanboltzmann-law-calculator and entering 1 for emissivity (because reflection by the surface has been deducted) and 168 w/sqm does the CSIRO agree that we get a temperature of about 233.3K (about -40C) for what the Solar radiation could achieve on its own? 5. Using the same calculator, does the CSIRO agree that 342 w/sqm is what would be emitted by a blackbody at about 278.7K (about 5.5C)? 6. Does the CSIRO agree that water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane each only radiate in a few frequencies whereas a blackbody radiates a full spectrum of frequencies? 7. Considering all questions above, is it likely that GHG spread out over the height of the troposphere would radiate as much to the surface as a blackbody at an altitude of only about 1.5Km where the average temperature would be about 278.7K? 8. A climatologist Dr Roy Spencer once admitted that the 324 back radiation figure was not a measurement but merely calculated so that all figures balance. Has the CSIRO any contrary information as to how it was either measured or calculated, noting the fact that it implies that the atmosphere generates energy? 9. Referring to the calculations in the note below the NASA diagram, does the CSIRO agree, using the Stefan-Boltzmann calculator, that the net 390 w/sqm is the (uniform) radiation from a blackbody that would achieve a temperature of about 288.0K namely just under 15C as the global mean surface temperature? 10. Can the CSIRO produce any documentation or experiments that confirm that the StefanBoltzmann Law can be used for the arithmetic sum of radiative fluxes from different sources, such as is implied it can be in the NASA diagram. Does it have any such proof that it can be used and give correct temperatures for such a sum of atmospheric and solar radiation less nonradiative surface cooling? 11. In light of responses to all the above, does the CSIRO agree that the NASA diagram does not represent reality and the surface temperature cannot be quantified with such radiation calculations as are implied (and no doubt used in computer models) by that NASA diagram? 12. In the 1870’s a physicist named Josef Loschmidt explained that gravity forms a temperature gradient in solids, liquids, and gases. Do you agree that Loschmidt was correct? 13. Climatologist Dr Roy Spencer once stated “that a column of air in the troposphere would have been isothermal but for the assumed greenhouse effect.” This is in accord with the “explanation” once appearing on the IPCC website that the solar radiation achieves a temperature of 255K at the “radiating altitude” and that GHG radiation then raises the surface temperature (from what it would have been if the troposphere were isothermal, namely 255K) by 33 degrees to 288K, this being the global mean surface temperature. That would mean that water vapour (the main GHG) does most of those 33 degrees and thus increases the magnitude of the temperature gradient. But it is well known that water vapour reduces the magnitude of the temperature gradient (AKA “lapse rate”) so how do scientists explain this contradiction? 14. It may be shown that the temperature gradient in all planetary tropospheres is a function of the quotient of the acceleration due to the planet’s gravity and the weighted mean specific heat of the gases. This is accurately the case for the planet Uranus where Voyager II made measurements. Yet the base of the 350Km high nominal troposphere of Uranus is estimated to be 320K – hotter than Earth’s mean surface temperature, even though the Solar radiation can achieve only about 53K at the top of that troposphere. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#Troposphere) There is no compelling evidence of net cooling of Uranus and there is no Solar radiation reaching the base of that troposphere and nor any solid surface there, so how do scientists explain the necessary heat input to support such a temperature? 15. Climate change theory appears to explain quite cogently that the “science” upon which it is assumed that carbon dioxide and methane could warm the planet is based on a false supposed application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in that (as implied in climatology energy diagrams) it depends upon the false assumption that radiation from these gases in cool regions of the atmosphere could cause heat transfer into the warmer surface. Why does the CSIRO not believe in the second law of thermodynamics? 16. Albert Einstein in his 1917 paper on the Quantum Theory of Radiation states the radiation is so insignificant as compared with other heat transfers that it drops out. Does the CSIRO believe Albert Einstein is wrong? 17. Won’t convection naturally offset any insignificant impact of radiation as a result of the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

21/11/2022

Question Number: 104 PDR Number: BI-70 Date Submitted: 21/11/2022 Department or Body: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 1. CSIRO researchers are developing new and novel ways to understand mosquitoes and how they spread viruses by:  Use of genomic

Read More »

Transmission lines not costed for 2030 emissions target

08/11/2022

Environment and Communications Legislation Committee07/11/2022EstimatesCLIMATE CHANGE, ENERGY, THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER PORTFOLIOAustralian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner — Yesterday in estimates I asked the government whether or not they had costed the price on installing the required transmission lines to meet their

Read More »

Senator RENNICK: Thank you. In order to get to the 43 per cent reduction by 2030, how many kilometres of transmission lines will need to be built? What will the cost of that be? Mr Dyer: I might consult. Ms Brunoro: We have to bear in mind that is a national target as well. The integrated system plan covers the eastern states. We can come back to you with some more analysis on that. Senator RENNICK: Didn’t you just legislate it? Hasn’t it been legislated now, the 43 per cent reduction by 2030? CHAIR: I think the answer, Senator Rennick, is that the transmission piece you are discussing is not the totality of the elements that will go to achieving the plan. Senator RENNICK: The reason I am asking is 2030 is only eight years away. My understanding is you have to get to 82 per cent renewables on the grid to get your 43 per cent reduction in CO2. Surely we must have a pretty clear plan and strategy in terms of how many transmission lines need to be built between now and 2030 to hook up enough renewables to get it into the grid, which is just eight years away. Ms Brunoro: Yes. We do. I’m happy to table some information about those key projects. Obviously, Marinus is one of them. There has already been an announcement on that. Senator RENNICK: How many kilometres of transmission lines will that involve? Ms Brunoro: Bear with me. I will have to add that up for you. I note that is a point in time estimate as well. Since the integrated system plan has come out, Queensland has already announced their energy security plan. They will be investing in significant transmission. I can give you a breakdown of the number of kilometres per the actual projects as it stands now and that are underway. We can add that up. Senator RENNICK: And that will get to 82 per cent renewables by 2030? Ms Brunoro: The projects we have in train do align with the projects that are in the integrated system plan, a step change scenario. That estimate from the Australian energy market operator is that it will deliver about 83 per cent renewables by 2030. So it is in line. Senator RENNICK: You can put a cost to that as well? Have we got an estimated cost of that? Ms Brunoro: We can pull out the estimated costs of those projects as they are going through the regulatory impact tests at the moment. Senator RENNICK: Sure. Ms Brunoro: And give a breakdown of them.

07/11/2022

Question Number: 68 PDR Number: SQ22-000198 Date Submitted: 07/11/2022 Department or Body: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water Under the step change scenario in the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)’s 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP), the renewable

Read More »

Senator RENNICK: That is fair enough. I am curious because the GenCost report is often used as the basis to say that renewables are cheaper. But there’s actually a lot of what I consider flawed assumptions in there, one of them being that you don’t need any more transmission lines until renewables hit 50 per cent of the grid and there’s no recycling costs taken into account. So that is a comment. You don’t need to respond to that. In terms of all the transmission lines that you need to get built between now and 2030 to get to 82 per cent of renewables, have you got approvals for all that from the various landholders? CHAIR: Senator Rennick, I wonder whether Ms Brunoro will take this on notice. There is a lot of detail in what you are asking. Senator RENNICK: Well, we’re in estimates. That is what it is all about—asking for the detail. CHAIR: But rather than her sitting there and adding everything up from her notes, would you be happy to take that further detail on notice? Senator RENNICK: What I would like to know is how far progressed you are in terms of getting the relevant and required approvals from both landholders and state governments and various other bodies—national parks or whatever it may have to be—in order to get those transmission lines built by 2030. Ms Brunoro: The short answer I will provide is that those projects are at different stages of development and approval out to 2030. Some of those that are slated to be delivered in the latter part of the decade will be going through the engagement and consultation processes at a later point in time. Clearly, some of those arrangements are going to change with respect to the various landholders when we get there. We can let you know which projects have had engagement with the community and which ones are to come.

07/11/2022

Question Number: 69 PDR Number: SQ22-000199 Date Submitted: 07/11/2022 Department or Body: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)’s 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP) is a comprehensive roadmap for the National Electricity

Read More »

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