Iemma jacks up electricity price ahead of planned privatisation of NSW power industry and pensioners shiver

NSW North Coast low-income earners, retirees and pensioners can expect their household electricity bills to rise by between $31 and $90 a year on average depending on which power company supplies the house.
This represents a rise of around 4.8 to 8.5 per cent, commencing on 1 July 2008.

With the inevitable network charges/service costs rise which would accompany the Iemma Government's planned privatisation and the expected steep rise in actual cost of electricity per kilowatt hour when emissions trading comes into being, North Coast residents may soon find that this essential service is moving beyond the limits of their pocket books.

Water use costs have also risen, so that in another four years it is likely that the Centrelink utility allowance will make barely a mark on the average household electricity and water bills of the elderly or disabled.

Many North Coast residents are permanent renters and therefore cannot take advantage of renewable energy rebates for energy saving systems which their landlords currently have no incentive to have installed in the first place.
The only option, for many elderly or chronically ill people surviving on low incomes, will be to cease making themselves hot meals or heating their homes on those cold winter nights.

Thanks, Messrs. Iemma and Costa and, thanks in advance to Mr. O'Farrell as it is obvious that the Liberal-Nationals Coalition intends to join in selling us all down the river to assist those big business political donors.

Photograph from ABC News

Whatever happened to the Aquanator? The sad history of 'green' technology in the Northern Rivers

The Australian reported last Friday that the Ballina-based company Permo-drive, which is developing a hybrid drive system for trucks, may be going into voluntary liquidation leaving 1,900 shareholders in the lurch.
The company had apparently placed considerable reliance on receiving up to $5 million in a grant from government and blames the Rudd Government for its current financial woes.

This put me in mind of the Aquanator, another NSW North Coast 'green' venture developed by Atlantis Energy Ltd based in the Clarence Valley at Maclean.
This company received considerable assistance from the then Howard Government by way of tax deferral, but quickly fell off the local radar thereafter.
It was also given support by prominent North Coast Nationals.

The technology is now formally owned by the Singapore-based Atlantis Resources Corporation, which does not indicate that this particular form of wave energy technology has been commercially established anywhere.
However the Victorian Government has allowed a 5-year longer term trial of the Aquanator which started in March 2008.

Coincidentally, the Aquanator was also a project of Permo-drive inventor, Matthew Perry, who had a very different view in 2004.
Then he was reported in The Sydney Morning Herald; "Mr Perry's first job as an auto-electrician led to his first successful invention in 1998, a device known as the Permo-Drive, which can cut fuel consumption by up to 40 per cent by capturing and storing energy normally wasted in the hydraulic braking systems of heavy trucks.
The system is manufactured under licence in the United States, has been adopted by the US Army for its huge fleet of heavy trucks, and is at present being tested by the US Postal Service."

Although it's unfortunate that Kevin Rudd has so easily abandoned alternative energy development as a genuine national priority, the situation for local entrepreneurs is a lot more complex than simply one of the level of government support.
I think that Federal Labor MP for Page, Janelle Saffin is right - you can't blame the government for these problems.

Possum Comitatus nails it on the preferred PM nonsense

From Possum Pollytics today.

The Preferred PM rating is essentially a meaningless beauty contest which has no statistical bearing on the vote. It either moves with changes in voting intention and satisfaction ratings, or lags behind them, and the relationship between the vote and the PPM is pretty tight as far as polling relationships go.----

Nelsons PPM is where we would expect it to be with him leading a party currently experiencing a 19 point TPP vote gap.

 

Google Trends: Obama outranks God in 2008

A little bit of weekend silliness courtesy of Google Trends.
From Washington to Raleigh, English-speaking American internet users were more interested in Barack Obama than looking for God.
Whereas God did John McCain down every time.
Has Google predicted the outcome of the 2008 US presidential race?

*Obama *God

A Sunday smile from the blogosphere

Popped up at Speak Media

Who's taking who for a ride?

Last month I went by cab from Ryde to Mascot domestic terminal, cost $72. My fare from Mascot to Coffs Harbour was $69 with Virgin Blue Airlines.

Now we find that our incompetent governments are allowing our taxi companies to increase their fares as a result of an increase in fuel prices.

Most of the cabs run on gas, my question is, "with all of our huge gas reserves who's taking who for a ride?"

Appsie
Clarence Valley

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents.
Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

Another skirmish in the war against bloggers

Excellent post on the Associated Press (AP) move to charge bloggers fees for what appears to be legitimate fair use quotes:
Lauredhel at Larvatus Prodeo.

Of course when the mainstream media takes a breaking news story straight from a blog and syndication has it turning up on multiple newspaper sites (eg., a North Coast Voices blog entry posted at 00.15am AEST on 12 June 2008 about Trujillo's legal letter to Wikipedia) one doesn't actually see them jumping up and down with glee at getting a story for only the effort of rewording the original post and making the odd 'phone call, but I'm sure that editors love such low-cost articles.

The majority of Australian blogs at least acknowledge where their information is sourced from and, for the most part, try not to breach any copyright which might be thought to exist.
I agree with Lauredhel - AP is trawling for increased revenue.

Bucket rating for Associated Press:





Postscript
AP has a history of asserting an incredibly broad definition of copyright.
In 2003 it sent a Cease and Desist letter (found at Chilling Effects) which read in part:
Therefore, any use of AP content on your Internet site, whether verbatim, rewritten or simply as a source for information contained in another story, can infringe AP's copyright, and other legal rights....
AP demands that you remove any and all AP content from your Internet site, including any archives, as well as from any site that mirrors or caches your site, that you cease and desist all use of AP copy -- whether verbatim or rewritten -- as well as all use of the facts contained in AP material, and that you confirm for me that you have done so within fifteen days from the date of this letter.