if only carpenter hadnt lost the election

My New Year's resolution was to only post following company announcements, but these two articles made it too hard to resist.

The WA libs can't even bring themselves to release the LEED funding that should have been allocated in December - while Labor seems to dream up new wave farms at every opportunity. Why is it that Carnegie is only ever supported openly and loudly by the opposition, or outgoing govt?!! Give us a break! It's particularly frustrating because, despite my bias, it actually makes a lot of sense. One day........ soon.


Opposition unveils plans to help Ravensthorpe
Posted 2 hours 3 minutes ago
Updated 1 hour 47 minutes ago

Alannah MacTiernan wants to build a big project in Ravensthorpe to create jobs. (ABC)

Map: Ravensthorpe 6346
The State Opposition has unveiled a plan it says will provide long term economic stability in the south coast towns of Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun.

A key plank of the plan is to build a $30 million mallee oil power plant in Ravensthorpe, or a wave power plant in Hopetoun.

BHP Billiton recently slashed nearly 2,000 jobs when it closed a nickel mine in the area.

The Opposition's Regional Development spokeswoman, Alannah Mactiernan, says either proposal could be completed within two years and create hundreds of sustainable jobs.

"We have already done a trial of the oil mallee plant," she said.

"We have had trials of the wave power. Nothing is going to happen overnight, nor is a road, a 60 million dollar road, through a national park is certainly not going to be done overnight."

State Cabinet has given in-principle support to a new tourist road between Hopetoun and Bremer Bay.

The Ravensthorpe Council called for the road to be built in the wake of the mine closure, saying it would boost tourism in the area and rival the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.



Biomass, wave energy plants for Hopetoun
5-February-09 by Rebecca Lawson

The state opposition says hundreds of sustainable jobs could be created in Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun from the investment in a biomass power plant and wave technologies, rather than a $60 million road.

The suggestion by Shadow Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan follows BHP Billiton's decision last month to shut its Ravensthorpe nickel mine, resulting in the loss of some 1800 jobs.

Ms MacTiernan said Ravensthorpe is the ideal site for a 5 megawatt mallee-based biomass power plant, the next step following a trial plant established by Verve Energy at Narrogin in 2006.

"A mallee-based biomass power plant would offer a diversified rural industry solution to providing employment and economic opportunity in Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun," she said.

"This power project would make it more feasible to develop a lithium mine at Ravensthorpe, a project which in itself could create up to 100 local jobs.

"Worldwide demand for lithium is set to treble over the next few years as it is a vital component for the emerging green electric car technology.

"Renewable energy plants would remove the need for the proponent of the mine to ship in diesel to run a generator and improve the commercial viability of the project."

Ms MacTiernan also suggested a 5MW wave power plant for Hopetoun which could also provide a direct desalination solution to local water supply problems.

She added that both the biomass plant and the wave power project could be considered for funding assistance under the Rudd government's $500 million renewable energy fund.

The state government announced it will build a road through the Fitzgerald National Park in a bid to bring tourists to the region and to help the region recover from the closure of the nickel operation.




Abandoned towns should go green: Opposition
Aja Styles
February 5, 2009 - 1:55PM
Green power is the solution to Ravensthorpe's and Hopetoun's employment and property woes, according to Opposition spokeswoman for Regional Development, Alannah MacTiernan.

The South Coast towns have been the hardest hit by the global financial crisis since BHP Billiton announced the closure of its local nickel mine and the dismissal of 1800 workers.

Ms MacTiernan has dismissed the State Government's development of a $60 million road through the region's Fitzgerald National Park to enhance tourism and jobs as "controversial" and short-term.

"We do not believe the road is going to create many jobs," she said.

"The tourism down there is going to be largely seasonal and there is in fact no tourism product and arguably, yes you can build a tourism product but it is going to be very small scale and very seasonal."

She said $30 million would be better spent developing wave or biomass technology, which could supply power to a lithium mining project being proposed for the area.

She said there was also community concern that the road could spread dieback through the forest.

"You could get a better bang out of the tax payers' buck for the project we are proposing."

She said the development of a renewable power plant would help counter the fall in the communities' real estate prices.

"If people living down there have hope for the long-term and jobs, at least it is going to protect in the short-term the value of those property prices."

She said a trial of an oil mallee biomass plant in Narrogin had already proven successful and could be developed in Ravensthorpe at a commercial scale, providing five megawatts of power to local communities and the mine.

Wave technology being trailed in Albany was another possibility and could be created at Hopetoun, with seawater desalination being another potential outcome.

Ms MacTiernan said the mine was undergoing feasibility assessments but if launched could create up to 100 permanent jobs.

The Opposition estimated it would take two years to develop either of the two renewable energy power plants.

"Nothing is going to happen overnight, certainly not a $60 million road," Ms MacTiernan said.

"It doesn't matter what project we have there is always going to be period of dislocation but the sorts of skills that are being used by the local workforce in the running of a local nickel mine, in our view, are much more in line with running a lithium mine and local renewable power plant."

The projects would be viable for Commonwealth funding.