The beauty of the Denniston Plateau that Bathurst may remove for nothing. Photo: Forest & Bird

Coal Action Network Aotearoa today called on the Minister of Conservation, Nick Smith, to not issue Bathurst Resources the DOC consent it needs to enter and operate its planned mine on the Denniston Plateau, in light of the company’s terrible financial state.

Bathurst has announced today that it is making 29 workers redundant and that it’s not going to mine coal at Denniston until international prices have recovered. However, it intends to go ahead and set up everything else on the plateau in readiness for mining.

This could include the removal of the “overburden” – the beautiful, biodiverse-rich landscape.

“Bathurst is in a terrible financial state.  Like Solid Energy, it’s facing a ‘perfect storm’ of tanking coal prices and a strong NZ dollar – quite a different situation from 2008 when the company started sniffing around the West Coast for coking coal,” said Cindy Baxter of CANA.

“There is no way this company should go ahead with wrecking the plateau, only to sit and wait until the coal price improves, something international commodities commentators are not forecasting to happen any time soon, due to an oversupply in the market.”

“We could find ourselves in a situation where the company goes under, having destroyed the beautiful Denniston Plateau – for absolutely nothing.  The Minister of Conservation needs to step in and refuse to let the company do this,” she said.

“There is no way Bathurst will be able to front up any time soon with the $22 million promised to DOC in the deal Mr Smith made with the company.”

The latest statement from BRL shows the company is having to restructure to keep afloat, and is to shed 29 jobs, instead of providing the 225 jobs it keeps promising – the 225 jobs that would only be there if it ramped up production to one million tonnes a year.

The price of coking coal has tanked, miles below the $165 the company needs to even break even, let alone make any profit. This break-even price was confirmed in a “caucusing agreement” between Bathurst and Forest & Bird at the Environment Court in November 2012, when they agreed that “a minimum expected price for the project to proceed is perhaps US$190.”

See also CANA’s recent blog on Bathurst’s perfect storm.

The post Minister of Conservation should halt Denniston Plateau mining appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Press Release
In the wake of the Environment Court’s approval of Bathurst’s opencast mine on the beautiful Denniston plateau, 350 Aotearoa and Coal Action Network Aotearoa today renewed their call for Westpac Bank to drop its support for the mine.

Already, more than 800 people have sent letters to Westpac as part of the “Westpac dump Denniston coal” campaign, launched last week in Auckland. This week saw a temporary “climate change crime scene” outside a main Westpac branch in Wellington catching the eye of lunchtime passersby, and many similar protests are expected to roll out across the country in the coming weeks as the campaign picks up.

“Westpac prides itself on its so-called ‘sustainability’ policy, but a growing number of people aren’t buying it. If Westpac continues to lend money to Bathurst for its dirty, climate-changing mine at Denniston, its sustainability claims will be exposed as pure greenwash,” said Kristin Gillies of Coal Action Network.

“The government has given its resource consent, but that’s far from the same thing as New Zealanders giving their stamp of approval to digging up the Denniston Plateau and putting 218 million tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere. We’re calling on Westpac to listen when its customers say they don’t want to be financing climate change,” said Ashlee Gross of 350.

The groups took issue with comments from the Buller District Mayor Garry Howard who has been arguing that Denniston coal is more environmentally responsible than Indian or Chinese coal. They noted  that “unfortunately there is no such thing as environmentally responsible coal.”   The Mayor also deliberately confused coking coal with thermal coal.

They highlight that the resource consent process takes no account of climate change.   As the recently released IPCC report confirms, we need to peak global emissions within the next few years in order to have a credible chance of keeping global warming to 2 degrees C, our best chance to avoid major climate tipping points.  That means taking a serious stance on seeing out existing coalmines, but saying no to new ones.

Write to Westpac www.westpacdumpcoal.org.nz

The post As Environment Court approves Denniston mine, all eyes on Westpac appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

The last month or so has seen a number of revelations on several of our coal fronts.  From Solid Energy walking away from the briquetting plant in Southland to ongoing developments for Bathurst Resources’ efforts to start mining the beautiful Denniston plateau, it’s been hard to keep up with it all.  Yet still, none of them are digging up any more coal. Let’s try and keep it that way.

What’s in this update?

1.     Lignite briquetting plant

2.     Denniston update

3.     Bathurst, new neighbour in a small town

4.     Bill McKibben tour and divestment

5.     Auckland Coal Action’s fight against Fonterra’s coalmine

6.     Coming up:  Generation Zero’s “What’s the Holdup” Tour

7.     Film about “Bidder 70” coming to NZ

8.      International – and climate science catchup

9.     Other news and resources

1.  Lignite briquetting plant

The trials of the Solid Energy/GTL briquetting plant continue at Mataura, with Solid Energy announcing late last month that it will walk away from the plant.  The media covered little of this announcement, but you can find out a lot more about what’s been going on there from our press release on the day.

Given our network includes locals living near to the plant, we have been able to get a lot more information about what’s been going on there – a lot more than what the media’s been covering.  And none of it’s good.

We also managed to get, through the Official Information Act, a document showing us what we suspected: the GTL plant in North Dakota had a massive explosion and is now being dismantled.  So this technology remains experimental.  Why should beautiful Southland farmland be dug up so that GTL can continue to try out its dirty technology to sell it on to Indonesia?

Solid Energy sponsorship under scrutiny:  You may also have missed this article about the millions Solid Energy spent on sponsorship.  We call it buying out criticism and it’s something that most coal and oil companies do to stop local protest about their activities.

2.  Denniston update

The ins and outs of Forest & Bird’s legal wrangles with Bathurst have been very complicated. But now Debs Martin has set it all out in an update.  Tim wrote a blog about it, but you might want to go directly to Debs’ update.  Suffice to say, the process continues – there are still Forest & Bird appeals in the pipeline and the company continues to struggle financially.

3.  Bathurst, new neighbour in a small town

Meanwhile, down in Southland, Rosemary Penwarden went to see Bathurst’s mine at Nightcaps. This is her account of what she found.

“Open cast mining explicitly turns the soil, it’s a bit like farming, the difference is once mining’s finished you put it back.” – Hamish Bohannan, CEO of Bathurst Resources

Bathurst Resources CEO Hamish Bohannan has never actually worked in the mining industry. He’s been around minerals extraction in Australia.  But Bathurst, his so-called “New Zealand” company that wants to destroy the Denniston Plateau, is actually his first ever coal company. Trust us, he says to Coasters. We know what we’re doing. For example, see how well we are going in Southland.

Last week CANA members went to Nightcaps to see Bathurst’s Southland operation for ourselves. The first thing we noticed, apart from the acrid coal smell that sits in the back of your throat, was that the little historic art deco butcher’s shop on Nightcaps’ main road has disappeared, so mine trucks can turn more easily. At a glance, a few more houses have had a coat of paint this past year. The art deco hotel has been repainted, and is still for sale. The Four Square store is doing a roaring trade, as apparently is the local contractor, Transport Services Ltd, though trucks were all lined up and shiny with nowhere to go at this time of year. Bathurst gives the local school free coal.

Down at the mine, things are not going quite to plan. Last year the hillside above the main pit fell in, sending about four million tonnes of overburden onto the coal. Bathurst paid the farmer about $14 million (one neighbour thought it was $40 million plus payouts) for the $1.1 million property.

The land is on a fault line, so is prone to slipping. That also makes the seams variable in size and the coal variable in quality. As local miners know, the best coal is already long gone. One miner said he prefers lignite to Takitimu coal. (When Mataura briquettes were mentioned, we only got chuckles.)

That has not stopped Bathurst opening a new pit, Coaldale, along the western side of the town, doubling the size of their operation. This is also prone to slipping. When we were there the same sticky mud that foiled 19th century miners was still foiling Bathurst and their contractors, Stevensons. Operations stopped completely the previous week because of snow, and wet weather was slowing work while we were there. “Smoko” appeared to last the whole hour and a half of our visit. What looked like a small waterfall was described as “just runoff” into the pit.

A new and very expensive coal sorter is supposedly arriving soon from Germany to replace the current dangerous (but still in action) old one. Where does Bathurst get the money to pay for this? It didn’t look like they were making much while we were there.

The next phase of Bathurst’s expansion plans would be “hilltop removal” of currently forested land even further to the west, near the town’s beautifully preserved and meticulously kept cemetery. A walk around this cemetery is a peek into a history, common to all mining towns, of tragedies, young men’s lives lost to coal.

4.  Bill McKibben tour: Divestment discussions begin – and campaign takes off internationally

In the wake of Bill McKibben’s tour of the country last month, many people are beginning to discuss divestment campaigns. It’s what Bill was encouraging, and we at CANA are also getting to grips with it.  Standby for updates to come soon.

Meanwhile, Jenny Campbell of Coal Action Murihiku and member of the Dunedin Climate Justice Group, has this news:

Divestment begins in Anglican Church. Good news!

People from Auckland’s St Paul’s Cathedral Climate Change Action group have organised a motion to be presented at their Diocesan Synod (decision making body) in September about encouraging those involved in investing funds on behalf of the church, to be required to divest from companies involved in extraction and/ or production of fossil fuels within 2 years, and not to invest in any new fossil fuel initiatives as part of their commitment through their present ethical investments policies. Their accompanying notes help explain the imperative for this action.

They have plans to spin it around all the other New Zealand Dioceses to get them to action this policy as well. They intend to get the Bishops involved and think there will be a keen interest in doing this because of Anglican’s commitment to ‘Care of Creation’ as one of the guiding principles of the Anglicans internationally. We have a special responsibility here in Aotearoa/ NZ because  ours is a 3 tikanga church involving not only Maori and Pakeha but also Pasifika peoples who are already seeing the effects of climate change on their people, other living things, their way of life and their economy.

It is hoped to appeal to other peoples of faith in our country to join us with this decision and ensure divestments in the places we have influence.

Rangimarie, kia kaha

Jenny.

But there are also very good signs coming out of the US, where President Obama made his first big climate change speech.  Along with talking about needing to stop emissions from coal, both at home and with international US investment banks,  Obama specifically called on people to “divest” from fossil fuels to bring about social change.

The campaign is beginning to take hold.  The massive United Church of Christ has adopted a resolution to divest from fossil fuels.  Dutch bank Rabobank has announced it will not invest in shale gas (will this policy be repeated by Rabobank in NZ?), and a huge Financial group in Norway, Storebrand, has pulled its investments out of 19 companies associated with Canada’s filthy tarsands.

5.  Auckland Coal Action support fight against Mangatawhiri coal mine

The main focus of ACA’s work this year is opposing the new coal mine planned for Mangatawhiri near Auckland. The mine will be owned by Fonterra and is intended to supply its factories for drying milk powder.

Last month we stood along state highway 2, near the proposed mine site in protest as a long line of cars filed back to Auckland after the holiday weekend.

Locals weren’t keen to get out with us in front of their friends and neighbours, but were happy for us to be there. And, make no mistake, they are strong in their opposition to the mine. Last month they held the inaugural meeting of the Coal Free Mangatawhiri group with around 20 founding members.

This week we are busy painting anti-coal signs to go up on Mangatawhiri properties, as requested by some of the locals. For next month we will be organising to get as big a contingent as possible to attend the consent hearings for the mine.

To get in touch with us, or, if you would like to help, please email aucklandcoalaction@gmail.com

Our next meeting will be on Saturday 4 August, 1-4 pm at the Quaker House 113 Mt Eden Rd, Auckland. New members welcome.

6. Coming up:  Generation Zero’s “What’s the Holdup” Tour

Coming to a town near you, from next week,  is Generation Zero’s “What’s the holdup tour”.  It’ll be a great opportunity to talk transport solutions, obstacles to climate action and showcase Aotearoa’s opportunities to move beyond fossil fuels.   They’ll have high level experts – and young Kiwis who are working on solutions.

This very positive-sounding tour will be at 13 different towns up and down the country, with the first in Dunedin on Monday 15^th.

Find out more here. Or their facebook page.

7.    Bidder 70 film coming to NZ

Tim de Christopher, a young US climate activist, was recently released from two years in federal prison for bidding at a US oil and gas auction as an act of civil disobedience. Bidder 70, a documentary just released in the United States, tells the story.

Of the film, Tim says: “At this point of unimaginable threats on the horizon, this is what hope looks like.”  He says that his actions of civil disobedience are appropriate to the scale of the crisis we face.

Of the environmental movement, Tim says:

“The way the environmental movement has been, it’s like a football game. And our team is getting slaughtered. The refs have been paid off and the other side is playing with dirty tricks. And so, it’s no longer acceptable for us to stay in the stands. It’s time to rush the field. It’s time to stop the game.”

Climate groups around Aotearoa, including CANA and with the support of Greenpeace NZ, have banded together to bring Bidder 70 to New Zealand, beginning with a first screening in Wellington later this month. We hope to have a local Coal Action presence at each screening, and we want as many people as possible to see this film.

Watch the trailer  And Watch Tim on the David Letterman show 

Share these! Keen to help? Email Rosemary rose.p@ihug.co.nz for details.

8.  International – and climate science catchup

Arctic melt picks up

This year’s Arctic melt is starting to take a nosedive.  While it isn’t yet at the same low levels at this time last year, it’s worth keeping an eye on.  This page gives you daily updates.  Also worth noting that the Arctic tundra is suffering unprecedented fires from a heatwave up there.

Climate consensus

In case you missed it, this new study was released, showing that more than 97% of scientists agree that global warming’s man made, caused by the burning of fossil fuels.   On the back of the study they launched the Consensus Project – do check it out, as it has great graphics you can use in your own work and send to friends.

400ppm milestone reached

Since our last newsletter, the atmosphere reached a scary milestone – of 400ppm of C02 in the atmosphere.  This is not something we were aiming for, unfortunately, indeed even 350ppm is considered not very safe, especially for our Pacific Island neighbours.  This is the highest it’s been since humans walked the planet. Since the Pleistocene, 3-5million years ago.  Of course the NZ media pretty much ignored it.  Scientist Jim Salinger wrote a great piece in the NZ Herald, who then went and “balanced” it with a piece by climate denier Chris de Freitas two days later that was riddled with basic scientific errors. The sooner our media stops treating climate denial as having equal standing with our climate scientists, the better.

NZ and global warming

The wild weather we’ve been having is not going to be an unusual event in the future, warns Victoria University’s Dave Frame.  Indeed, this is the same message delivered by James Renwick after the Wellington storm. While that storm couldn’t be put down to climate change, Dr Renwick noted to Radio New Zealand that actually every storm we get now “has a little bit of climate change in the background” as our warming world loads extra moisture into the atmosphere.

Australia lignite fight:  There’s another fight going on around lignite vs farmland – in Australia’s state of Victoria, where the Government wants to dig up all the lignite (brown coal) under some of the state’s most fertile farmland. This great feature covers it all.

Also, on Australia, Kristin Gillies and Jenny Campbell were lucky enough to spend three days with a bunch of coal activists from across the country.  Read their account of the meeting.

9. news and resources 

RMA “reforms”

We’re all very worried about the impact of the proposed RMA reforms.  The Greens have got an open letter to Amy Adams calling on her to save the RMA.  If you want to support the campaign and sign this, go here.

Coal for Steel

You may have missed Jeanette Fitzsimon’s great editorial in the Nelson Mail about the alternatives to coal for making steel.

Coromandel Watchdog closes down drillrig for 30 hours

While this isn’t about coal, it’s about inspiration – congratulations to our brave colleagues in the Coromandel who shut down a Newmont Gold drilling rig on conservation land for 30 hours last weekend.  See the story on TVNZ. And the full story and photos from the team over at their website.

The post Newsletter July 2013 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Headline of Businessweek after Sandy hit New York – will the Supreme Court understand the important link between coal extraction and climate change?

A small West Coast environment group will face off against two large coal companies – Australian Bathurst Resources and state-owned Solid Energy – at the Supreme Court this week, arguing that climate change is relevant for coal mining consents.

“Even the companies admit that their coal will contribute to climate change,” says West Coast Environment Network spokesperson Lynley Hargreaves. “So we should be able to call evidence on it.”

The group intended to call NASA’s Dr James Hansen to give evidence against the proposed Escarpment Mine at a 2012 Environment Court hearing in Westport. But Bathurst Resources and Solid Energy sought and obtained declarations from the  Environment and High Courts that climate change is excluded from coal mining – and by implication other – resource management considerations.

“We are arguing that the courts when applying our overarching environmental legislation shouldn’t ignore the most serious threat facing humanity today,” says Ms Hargreaves. “Resource consent hearings already take other complex matters into account, such as acid mine drainage and biodiversity loss. Climate impacts need to be weighed up too.”

“We are all going to face the effects of climate change – more floods, droughts and extreme weather events,” she adds.

The hearing begins at the Supreme Court in Wellington at 10am on Tuesday 12 March.

Notes:
1. The legal argument centers around the interpretation of a 2004 amendment to the Resource Management Act, which was to replace local authority consideration of climate change from New Zealand fuel combustion with a central government carbon tax, later changed to an Emissions Trading Scheme. However the amendment applies only to discharge permits, so West Coast Environment Network argues that it has no applicability to a coal mine when no application is made for a discharge permit.
2. The Environment Court has yet to announce a decision on the Escarpment Mine case, which was heard in 2012 without climate change evidence.
3. An Environment Court hearing on Solid Energy’s latest mine proposal, which was appealed by the Royal Forest and Bird Society, has been postponed pending the outcome of this week’s Supreme Court hearing.

The post Coal vs climate at Supreme Court appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

If the New Zealand cricket team needs a new spinner to replace Daniel Vettori, they need look no further than mining industry lobby group Straterra. Perhaps because Solid Energy is in a tailspin and the mining industry has been coming under challenge all around the country in recent months, they have chosen to highlight a survey carried out, in somewhat mysterious circumstances, by Pauline Colmar, formerly of survey firm Colmar Brunton, which purports to show strong public support for mining.

However, on closer inspection, the survey was worded along these lines:

Survey company: Would you swim with sharks – if sharks didn’t bite?
Lots of respondents: Yes
Survey customer press release: “Majority of New Zealanders say they love swimming with sharks”
(notice the lack of options here for a respondent to say “hang on, but sharks DO bite”).

There’s more on that survey below. We have also more on Solid Energy’s troubles and their future plans; more on the forthcoming Powershift conference in December and 2013 Summer Festival in January; and the latest news on Denniston legal action.

Check out our international section that discusses the links between climate change and the horrific “Superstorm Sandy” in the US this week. Our thoughts are with the families of the people who died,  from the Caribbean to the US and Canada, and with those suffering in the devastation Sandy left in its wake.

Editor’s Note: In February 2011, I took on the job of editing a monthly “Supporters’ Update” for the Coal Action Network Aotearoa. That first update had five items. The September 2012 CANA newsletter had fifteen items, including a number of sub-items. This is a reflection of the breadth, depth and growth of our campaigns, but it’s all getting a bit much for your frazzled editor. So I am taking a break from newsletter editing duties to focus on the other work I should be doing for CANA, but keep on running out of time to get around to!

Along with a change of editor, we’re also going to take another look at how we put together the newsletter, aiming to reduce both its length and the effort required to produce it while still bringing you up-to-date news about our campaigns and the coal industry’s manoeuvres.  Please take part in our upcoming survey.

Regards
Tim Jones
Coal Action Network Aotearoa

1. Coming Events
2. More Spin Than Shane Warne
3. Got Something To Tell Us? Use Coal Tips
4. Summerfest 2013: Registrations Open 5 November
5. Powershift 2012
6. International News
7. TPPA Negotiations in Auckland, December 2012
8. Solid Energy: Still Not Getting It
9. Denniston Update
10. Top of the South Speaking Tour On Lignite
11. Regional Reports: Auckland, Wellington, Top of the South, Canterbury, Southland
12. CANA Social Media
13. Our Blog And Website
14. How To Donate To CANA

1. Coming Events

November

2: Closing date for submission on the Crown Minerals Act review – see this Forest & Bird submission guide at Greenpeace’s draft submission.
3: Auckland Coal Action meeting, 11am start, shared lunch 12.30-1pm, meeting ends 4pm.  Quaker Meeting House, 113 Mt Eden Rd
12: Wellington Ka Nui network meeting, 7pm, 19 Tory St. Contact michelle@ducat.co.nz to confirm venue or for more information.

December

3-12: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiating session in Auckland. Seehttp://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/ for details of planned actions.
7-9: PowerShift 2012, Auckland. See http://powershift.org.nz/
8: National Day Of Action Against The TPPA. Keep an eye on http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/ for details.

January 2013

18-21: Summerfest 2013, Dolamore Park, near Gore

2. More Spin Than Shane Warne

Tim Jones writes:

I had recently had the dubious pleasure of attending a function at Straterra, the mining industry lobby group that is headquartered on the Terrace, conveniently near the Beehive for those Ministers who don’t like traveling too far from their natural habitat.

Cindy Baxter and I from CANA joined the mining magnates and government officials (surprisingly difficult to tell apart) at the event to hear Pauline Colmar, formerly of Colmar Brunton, discuss the research her firm carried out for Solid Energy.

Her headline message to the miners & their Ministry cheerleaders was that mining was much more popular in New Zealand than the industry thought, and that they should get out and celebrate the fact. But even the most cursory look at the figures she presented shows that the survey achieved its numbers by asking New Zealanders whether they would support coal miningif the environment could be protected, or if it didn’t lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

But here’s the problem: coal mining wrecks the environment and leads to more greenhouse gas emissions. And the survey figures show that New Zealanders don’t want either of those things. So, nice try, wannabe Shane Warnes of the mining industry. But your spin is well wide of the mark.

For more on this, see:

* CANA’s press release: 
* Claire Browning’s column in the Otago Daily Times
* Summer Burstyn’s article on LiveNews, which provoked comments both from pollsters and from the person asked to fill in the survey who alerted us to the whole shebang in the first place:
* Beau Murrah’s piece on how he persuaded the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to take the Straterra press release about the poll down from their site.

3. Got Something To Tell Us? Use Coal Tips

coaltips@gmail.com

Since early 2012, we have been getting interesting tidbits of information from people inside the coal industry. They have tipped us off to health and safety problems which have substantially delayed the opening of Solid Energy’s pilot briquetting plant (see the Solid Energy item below for Solid’s take on this), and also given us some other useful information on Solid Energy’s future plans.

We know that there are a lot of disgruntled people in the coal industry right now, and with good reason. So our message to people inside the industry is this: even if we don’t agree on everything, we might agree that the coal industry and its leading players need to be made accountable to the public.

If you’d like to help us with this process, or if there is some information the coal industry is hiding that you think the rest of the country should know, then all you have to do is drop us an email to coaltips@gmail.com.

You don’t have to give your name or contact details, although of course it would help us if you did. We promise to keep your name confidential if that’s what you want. You can send the message from any email address you like. And, if you’ve got a picture or a document to send us, gmail addresses can handle nice big attachments.

We think the coal industry is in trouble, and we think people inside the industry know it. This is your chance to share what you know.

4. Summerfest 2013: Registrations Open 5 November

In January, the Keep The Coal In The Hole Summer Festival, aka Summerfest, held on Mike Dumbar’s farm near Mataura, was a big success, not least because it led to the formation of a number of regional anti-coal action groups.

The Southland regional group Coal Action Murihiku (CAM) has taken on the job of organizing the 2013 Summerfest. This will be held from Friday 18-Monday 21 January 2013 at Dolamore Park, a beautiful native bush reserve near Gore, just outside the north-western boundary of Solid Energy’s landholdings in the Mataura Valley.

We will be putting the registration form for the 2013 Summerfest up on the website within the next few days. Please look on the site on Monday 5 November for updated information, including the registration form.

5. Powershift 2012

Generation Zero, 350.org and other groups are inviting young people (13-35) to attend the biggest youth climate summit ever held in New Zealand – and you can see all the details and registerhere.

An important part of Powershift 2012 is its outreach to Pasifika youth. 350.org.nz Pacific Outreach Coordinator Koreti Tiumalu takes up the story:

Imagine a community of Pacific youth with the passion, skills and capacity to shape a safe climate future for New Zealand, and speak out for their home Pacific Island nations. 
Over the last six months, we’ve started to make this vision a reality and have run “Pasefika Climate Change Jams” in Auckland and Wellington. Now as we build up to Power Shift NZ-Pacific, our goal is to get 100 young Pacific Islanders living in New Zealand to actively participate in the event. We will harness that energy, to then reach across NZ’s Pacific communities in 2013 and beyond.
It’s time Pacific people found themselves a seat at the table where these things are discussed and tackled – and I am excited to be a part of an organisation who has recognised the valuable contribution that Pacific people can bring to that table. We will bring colour, new ideas, new life and above all else, heart.
I’m really excited, and I’m also daunted by the work ahead. Doing all of this on top of a full-time job is a real challenge, but I’m committed to making it work, as this is just too important for it not to happen.
Your help can make a massive difference. Here’s some of the ways:

• Do you have connections with the Pacific Island communities here in NZ that we can get in contact with? Let me know at koreti@350.org
• Support the Pasefika Climate Change Jam fund – donate $20, $50 or $350 to enable us to keep reaching out to Pacific Island communities through events (or sign up as aregular giver).
• Volunteer with our Pasefika team – we need all hands on deck to build the movement. If you are keen to help us out, just drop me an email to koreti@350.org

6. International News

Superstorm Sandy’s links with climate change. 
Superstorm Hurricane Sandy has left eight US states in a state of emergency, with the death toll in the US climbing, and 39 killed in the Caribbean.  The superstorm shattered records in terms of depth of depression over the US and the storm surges, predicted to peak at 11 feet in New York, reached nearly 14 feet, causing billions in damage. It was a scary night for millions of people, and many of us in NZ were glued to the news as it unfolded, hoping friends and family were safe.  Unfortunately the forecasters got it right this time.  As we said above, our thoughts are with those who have suffered.

But how much of it was caused by climate change? While Sandy wasn’t CAUSED by climate change, there are several things we do know about it:  that temperatures in the Atlantic were higher than normal.  Some scientists suspect that the weather system coming from the Arctic was caused by the melt.
New York Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg have started making the links.

Here’s some links to more in-depth coverage of the issue.
Close Up talked about it with Kiwi climate scientist Jim Salinger.
Hurricane expert, scientist Kevin Trenberth, has a good summary here.  He talks about how all weather is now occurring against a background of a warming world.
The co chair of the US National Climate Assessment Gary W Yohe talks about how this isn’t the “new normal” – because the changes we’re seeing haven’t stopped yet.
Joe Romm at Climate Progress
Chris Mooney, science writer and author of “Storm World” on Mother Jones.
The New Yorker: Watching Sandy, ignoring climate change
You can find much, much more online, but we’ll leave you with this fantastic video, using a “baseballer on steroids” analogy to explain how the background conditions can lead to extreme weather events.

Calls to end the climate silence in the US elections
A growing chorus of NGO’s in the US have been calling for the election race to break their “climate silence” – it’s the first Presidential campaign in the US to NOT mention climate change since 1998. Why? Blame the massive increase in fossil fuel funding of the elections (to the tune of around US$150m), in particular a coal industry-led campaign against Obama’s so-called “war on coal” (never mind that it’s the gas/fracking industry driving down the demand for coal)   It’ll be interesting to see if this silence continues in the wake of Sandy’s wrath.

Australia confirms its Renewable Energy Target
The Australian Government’s newly formed Climate Change Authority has been reviewing the Renewable Energy Target – and has recommended keeping the target at the energy equivalent of at least 20% by 2020, shrugging off intense pressure from the fossil fuel industry. The final decision will be taken in December.

True cost of CCS revealed 
Remember how Don Elder keeps telling us that we can reduce coal emissions to near zero?  Well that would be using CCS – carbon capture and storage – technology. Apparently.  If Don thinks he’s got financial problems now, wait til he faces the cost of CCS.  Australia’s full report on the issue was recovered through official information and it’s not pretty.

UN warns of food crisis
Meanwhile the UN warns of a looming food crisis in 2013 in the wake of record droughts and heatwaves leading to crop failure in the US and elsewhere.

7. TPPA Negotiations In Auckland, December 2012

A parasitic organism is on its way to Auckland in early December. It is designed to grow fat on its hosts and leaves them weakened and more vulnerable.

Sounds nasty? It is. It’s called the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, it is currently under negotiation by 11 countries chivvied along by the US Government, and, if adopted as it stands by the New Zealand Government, it would significantly weaken New Zealand’s sovereignty in a whole range of areas, including our ability to impose environmental standards on foreign-owned mining companies.

The TPPA negotiating circus is coming to Auckland in early December, and a coalition has been organised to protest against these undemocratic negotiations, with a national day of action planned for 8 December. For background on why the TPPA is such a bad thing, and news of planned events and actions, keep an eye on http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/

8. Solid Energy Struggles To Commission Briquetting Plant, But Wants To Press Ahead With Lignite-To- Urea Plant

In the last couple of newsletters, we’ve reported on Solid Energy’s many misadventures. One that hasn’t been well reported in the news media is the delay in commissioning Solid Energy’s pilot lignite-to-briquettes plant in Southland.

As mentioned under “Coal Tips” above, we’ve heard from industry sources that serious health and safety issues have been uncovered during the construction of the plant, leading to substantial delays in commissioning it and raising fears for the health and safety of the six workers who will be employed at the plant. Of course, that’s not quite how Solid Energy put it in their recent Quarterly Report:

“Plant construction is essentially complete and the plant is working through initial commissioning procedures.  During this process some minor modifications have been required which will delay the timing of first saleable coal.  This is now expected late this calendar year.   At full production, the plant will produce approximately 90,000 tonnes per annum of briquettes.”

However, this hasn’t stopped Solid wanting to press ahead with the next idea Don Elder scrawled on the back of a napkin, his dream of a lignite-to-urea plant:

“The CTF feasibility study to confirm the economic viability, including environmental and social acceptability, of a Southland-based coal to urea development is underway. This phase of the project includes identifying project partners and selecting our preferred development partner.”

Since Ravensdown pulled out of the joint lignite-to-urea project, Solid Energy says it has been working to sign up a new partner but extensive enquiries have yielded no indication that anyone is interested. Using lignite to do what can be done more cheaply from gas doesn’t sound like a winner even in Solid Energy’s terms. However, we are not taking anything for granted, and we’ll be taking a keen interest in where, if anywhere, Solid Energy goes with this.

Note: It’s still possible to make Official Information Act requests to Solid Energy, and here’s a site that makes it really easy to do so. If you have ever wanted to find out anything from or about Solid Energy, now is a good time to ask.

9. Denniston Update

Lynley Hargreaves reports:

The Denniston Court hearing began on Monday 29 October in Christchurch. Bathurst, the district and regional councils, West Coast Environment Network, Forest and Bird, and a brave individual called Terry Sumner will start presenting their arguments at 10am at the Environment Court on 99 Cambridge Terrace. This is open to the public.

Four weeks of hearing have been planned: 29 October-1 November and 5-9 November (Christchurch), 26-30 November (Greymouth) and 3-7 December (Christchurch again). Going along is a great way to get a working knowledge of the RMA and court system and you can contact wcent@riseup.net if you want more details about when particular issues will be heard.

The case is going ahead without climate change evidence, while that battle continues on a parallel course through the courts, but pest control, landscape, invertebrates, social impacts, and biodiversity offsets will all be argued.

Also, you can read this excellent letter by West Coaster Jane Orchard about the real reason for Bathurst’s troubles.

10. Top of the South Speaking Tour On Lignite

Rosemary Penwarden reports from Dunedin:

In 2011 I wrote ‘Just Lignite’, a small booklet about Solid Energy’s Southland lignite proposals published by the Anglican Church Social Justice Commission. 15,000 have been distributed around the country. Dr Anthony Dancer, Social Justice Commissioner, and I were invited to speak on the issue in mid-October in Nelson, Motueka and Takaka. We both really enjoyed speaking with a range of people and exploring this beautiful part of the country.

The issues we face are so big. The association with the Anglican Church brought in some who may have not considered the issues before and was really valuable. Face to face discussions are a big part of what’s needed for change to happen.

Thanks so much to Top of the South group ‘Renewables’ for your hospitality and the fantastic work done in organising the tour, the amazing media afterwards and the other work being done in your region. It was great to put faces to names from the lignite discussion group and make new friends in our work towards a coal free Aotearoa.

Media reports:

Southland Times:  Anti lignite campaign on road 
Motueka online: Lignite mining an ‘international crime’
Scoop: Archdeacon speaks out against coal 

11. Regional reports: Auckland, Wellington, Top of the South, Canterbury and  Southland

Note: A quick way to find contacts of all the regional anti-coal action groups is on the website.

Auckland: Auckland Coal Action

Jill Whitmore reports:

We identified in mid-August that the NZ Symphony Orchestra was advertising an upcoming concert tour of major centres as “The Solid Energy Tour”, sponsored by Solid Energy, and decided  to picket the Auckland performance and put our anti-coal message out to the public. We were concerned not to alienate concert-goers, and also to make it clear that we support the NZSO though we abhor their SE sponsorship. We explained this in a letter to the NZSO management before the event.

Most of us attended the picket, including a “Climate change elephant”, and gave out leaflets to people as they arrived. (Banner: “Love NZSO, but coal cooks the climate”.) We felt the actions (2 so far) were successful, good-natured, and well-targeted, and worth repeating at further concerts sponsored by SE.

Fonterra intends to open a new (small) coal mine near Mangatangi, about an hour’s drive south of Auckland. The coal, which will be very cheap for them, is intended to power their dairy factories in the region. Four of our members attended a meeting which Fonterra hosted for local residents, mainly to gather information. We are seeking initially how we might persuade Fonterra to use wood waste instead of coal for drying their milk powder.

In a similar vein, ACA has decided as part of its coal-free Auckland campaign to try to persuade schools still using old coal-fired boilers, to switch to wood pellets/chips or electric.

Next Meeting, all welcome:  Saturday 3^rd November, 11am start, shared lunch 12.30-1pm, meeting ends 4pm.  Quaker Meeting House, 113 Mt Eden Rd.

Auckland Coal Action was formed in July 2011 following the visit of Dr James Hansen. We recognise that coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels and that its ongoing use will lead to catastrophic climate change. We aim to achieve a coal-free Aotearoa by 2030, initially by opposing the expansion of coal mining. We do this work to play our part in sustaining a benign climate for us, our children and grandchildren.

Our website is at http://aucklandcoalaction.org/ and you can contact us ataucklandcoalaction@gmail.com

Wellington: “Keep the Coal in the Hole” Gatherings

Tim Jones reports:

Our most recent “Keep the Coal in the Hole” two-monthly gathering in Wellington was on 18 October. Dr Anne MacLennan of Ora Taiao gave us an excellent presentation on coal’s many risks to human health, covering both its local effects and the bigger global health risks of climate change brought on, in large part, by burning coal. We hope to be able to make this presentation available in electronic form soon.

We are currently considering whether to keep these separate two-monthly gatherings going, or bring them under the tent of the wider Ka Nui! network on resource extraction issues that is emerging in Wellington. The current gatherings strike a good balance between education and activism; on the other hand, it makes sense to bring together people working on closely related issues. We expect to make a decision on this after talking more with our friends in the Ka Nui! network.

Next Wellington Ka Nui network gathering: Monday 12 November, 7pm, 19 Tory St. Contactmichelle@ducat.co.nz to confirm venue or for more information.

Top of the South: Clean Energy Future Action Group

The Clean Energy Future Action Group, based in Nelson, has set up a Kickstarter-style fundraising campaign for its latest campaign against coal mining. You can check out the campaign, and help it meet its fundraising goal here.

Canterbury: Canterbury Coal Action

Check out this press release from Canterbury Coal Action, “Court Process Deeply Flawed”:

Some key quotes:

“In New Zealand we currently have a remarkable situation in that our premier piece of environmental legislation, the Resource Management Act, can only consider the effects OFclimate change, but not the effects ON climate change.  So the court is not able to learn how every tonne of coal that might be extracted from Denniston will add to an already pressing problem of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

As such the court process this week is deeply flawed – it is only hearing part of the evidence.

What happened to “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” ?

Would a murder trial proceed without the key witness?

Would a fraud trial proceed without the accountants?”

It’s well worth reading the whole release. You can contact Canterbury Coal Action atcanterburycoalaction@gmail.com

Southland: Coal Action Murihiku (CAM)

In addition to work on Summerfest 2013, plenty of other things have been going on in Southland, as Jenny Campbell reports:

Coming up 18-21 January Summer Fest at beautiful native bush reserve Dolamore Park near Gore.

Guest speaker Rob McCreath from Queensland who has successfully fronted the ‘Friends of Felton’ will tell us a success story of how they saved their valley from mining and the establishment of a chemical plant there. Rob is keen to connect with local farmers who are being challenged by the possibility of fracking/coal seam gas exploration in Northern Southland. More speakers are being organised to fit in with our theme and as soon as these are confirmed we will enlighten you.

You can find out more about the Felton story here.

Help wanted: we are looking for a person with a passion for organising food for the Summer Fest camp – cooking on gas burners, in a tent…for 120 people – just a wee holiday chore maybe ?

CANA and CAM members are busy organising the programme so hope you are looking at making bookings to come south, make a holiday of it and explore our fabulous scenery and hospitality….

Further information and registrations. 

Briquette plant opening at Mataura: still no date set yet but latest talk from Solid Energy is end of the year. An action is still planned once we get the word.

CAM members went on Solid Energy’s October Newvale mine bus tour. Only one ran as the numbers weren’t as high as expected. CAM member John Purey- Cust reported that on the surface it was hard to see if they were keeping to their conditions – but of course they aren’t taking lignite to the briquetting plant in any quantity yet, so that will change the scale of their operation. We still need to be vigilant.

CAM information stalls were held at Invercargill’s Eco Spring festival 6 Oct and at Gore’s rhododendron festival on Sun 14 Oct. About 400 sign ups were recorded for the Asset Sales petition thanks to keen Green and Labour party members. A few CANA sign ups too.

An excellent front page item appeared in the Gore Ensign with two of our members featuring with local controversial artist Wayne’ Hill’s sculpture about possible fracking and coal seam gas exploration featuring in a paddock at the entrance to Riversdale, close to Gore.
Rangimarie,
Jenny Campbell
Co- convenor, CAM

12. Social Media Rivalry: Facebook Leads Narrowly

In the last month, CANA’s Twitter account has almost closed the gap on our Facebook group. At the time of writing, our Facebook group at
has stalled at 687 members, while our Twitter account has 670 followers.

So, if you’re a Facebook fan, what do you do? You join the group yourself and invite your friends to join!

If you’re in the Twitter camp, then please follow @coalaction, RT our tweets, and encourage your Twitter followers to follow us too.

The race to 1000 is on!

14. Donate to CANA! 

We rely on your generous donations to keep the campaign going. Here are the account details if you want to donate:

Coal Action Network
Kiwibank
38 9011 0484435 00

The post Coal Action Network Aotearoa Newsletter October 2012 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

The beauty of the Denniston Plateau. Photo: Forest & Bird

As the appeal begins today in the Environment Court against Bathurst Resources’ consent to mine the beautiful Denniston Plateau,  we received a copy (via Russel Norman’s facebook page) of a beautifully written letter from West Coaster Jane

Orchard to the NZ Herald’s energy reporter Grant Bradley.

Jane wasn’t at all sure that the NZ Herald would publish her letter, so she sent it to Russel, and we felt it was well worth re-posting it on our blog.

It’s a very good reposte to the ridiculous claims by Bathurst and the Government that the company’s financial problems are down to the legal challenges against the opencast mine – claims that were repeated by Bradley with seemingly little investigation into the truth behind Bathurst’s problems.

Dear Mr Bradley

I was intrigued with an article you wrote about Bathurst in the Herald, basically touting their official line that all their problems are caused by protests about their mining activity. It is absolute rubbish and I really wish some journalist would spend some time researching what has really happened instead of just trotting out the spin from these people.

On the basis of this spin, the Government is talking about fast-tracking the resource-consent process to make things easier for Bathurst. This is when things become really serious.

About a month ago, I sent a letter to the ed to the NZ Herald on the subject of Bathurst’s credibility. It was not published and I guess I always knew that it wouldn’t be. Nobody wants to rock the Government’s boat.

Hamish Bohannan is putting out very effective spin. Bathurst has a great propaganda team and they are making it clear to anyone who will listen that the drop in their share prices has been caused by protests against their plans. However, it seems to me that the drop in the share price has predominantly resulted from one of their major bank investors (7%, I think) getting out, taking a $56 million loss, and flooding the market with shares.

Why would an investor get out like this? Because Bathurst Resources is a farce. It spent multi-millions on buying from L&M a mining plan which could never have worked. It is laughable, as most Coasters could have told them but they didn’t ask. Bathurst did no due diligence on the plan. They obviously just wrote out the cheque.

I have to assume that they didn’t even know that Denniston is an ecologically unique and valuable area with species which are found nowhere else in the world (but which Mr Bohannan claims Bathurst will return to a much better state than it is in now).

Bathurst managed to get consents for this wonderful plan even though it would have contaminated the water supplies of around a hundred families – despite the fact that NZ has signed agreements with UN agencies which give us a legally enforceable right to clean water for domestic purposes.

Coal is king on the Coast. West Coast Regional Council approved the discharge of contaminants to air knowing our water supplies would be polluted and the resource consent commissioners consented to it. The Health and Safety in Employment Act prohibits workplaces from causing harm to people in the vicinity of a workplace, but that didn’t matter either.

People here would have died from the coal dust – with the approval of our councils. People don’t matter a damn here. I hate to think how much it cost Bathurst to get the consents but it had legal heavyweights and experts on its team pitted against a small group of local residents who had only themselves. We lost, big time!

The plan involved bringing a slurry pipeline across the Denniston Plateau, down the hill to a coal-processing plant and coal stockpile 12+m high and 1 km long, right beside people’s homes.

It was later pointed out to Bathurst by locals that you might be able to get water to go down an 80m gully and come up around 79m on the other side, but you aren’t going to do that with coal in the water, and the consequences of one of our frequent power cuts don’t bear thinking about. Then they learned that the Denniston Plateau might have the joy of 6-8m of rain a year, but the ground is largely granite and the water simply runs off.

In summer, there’s no water up there at all. A friend who grew up there told us of his house being built beside a creek. A walkway went out to the longdrop which emptied straight into the creek. In summer, his mother prayed every day for rain because of the smell!

So the slurry pipeline was dead in the water and Bathurst is now planning some sort of conveyor system but that’s not consented yet and, no doubt, they’ll blame that delay on local protestors too. Next was the site for the coal-processing plant, the stockpile and a railway siding. The land we live on is the result of a series of ancient landslides. It is formless, saturated clay with occasional large rocks in it. It was mentioned at the resource-consent hearing that you can’t put a large building on this land because the mud has no bottom. The options for a railway siding are non-existent.

A few weeks later, Bathurst had a drilling rig on the site. They apparently went down 20m before they found bottom. They couldn’t build the plant there. Some residents told them about a better site about 2km away. We were saved – sort of!

We will still get noise and pollution from the mine and the other processing plant and that’s illegal so we’ll fight that battle next. However, Bathurst has refused to relinquish the consent for the plant next to our homes.

So perhaps the investors realised from all the about-turns that Bathurst management was completely out of its depth. It is not a mining company. It’s a bunch of venture capitalists.

To rub salt into their wounds, Bathurst had paid non-refundable deposits to those people who were strong enough to stand up to their tactics. Those people have laughed all the way to the bank. Despite this arrangement, Bathurst categorically told Westport’s The News that it had not been involved in any purchase of properties and did not intend to buy any. Would you invest in a company like this?

Bathurst has no social conscience, despite its claims of being a community-minded company. They are spending heaps of money in town but will that continue after Buller District Council has served its purpose in supporting them through the consent process? That remains to be seen. They are prepared for people to die. People who could not live in Westport because of the coal smog in winter built homes out here to avoid exacerbating respiratory ailments. Coal dust kills. Nobody but us cared about our lives.

Bathurst isn’t caught in a litigation loop. It’s more like a noose of its own making. Please don’t believe Bathurst’s spin. Do some investigations of your own and then write about them. Trotting out info from press releases is easy but is it journalism?

Jane Orchard

Fairdown

The post The truth about Bathurst’s problems at Denniston: a West Coast local speaks out. appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.