Ep. 99 Muckaty dump site hearing in Darwin, Coal tanker oil spill on Great Barrier Reef and Renewables

Click to download: the third degree - Ep. 99 Muckaty dump site hearing in Darwin, Coal tanker oil spill on Great Barrier Reef and Renewables
Aired on 2SER 107.3 Sydney - April 8th 2010
Presenters: Libby King, James Hitchcock and Jessica Minshall

MUCKATY NDA
Next Monday the 12th of April there will be a hearing in Darwin, forming part of a senate inquiry by the legal and constitutional affairs committee into the new National Radioactive Waste Management Bill, tabled earlier this year in February.

On Saturday there was a community gathering in Tennant Creek and over 250 people rallied marched through the town, directing their anger at both Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and the Northern Land Council (NLC) - who they say overlooked them.

Featured in that report were Muckaty Traditional Owners Dianne Stokes of the Yapa Yapa group, Mark Lane from the Ngapa group and Bunny Naburula of the Milwayi Group, and the people featured who will be taking action were Yaelle Cas-by from the friends of the earth anti nuclear group in Melbourne and Angie Rozalie from the Australian Student Environment Network anti nuclear group in Sydney. There will also be actions across the country in Hobart, Alice Springs and Perth.

COAL TANKER OIL SPILL
The coal industry has even more environmental damage on its hands this week, with a coal tanker running aground on the Great Barrier Reef. Maritime safety authorities were left scrambling with clean-up efforts as two tonnes of heavy fuel oil seeped into the ocean in this restricted environmental zone.
Maritime groups and the Greens Party are blaming the Government for not doing enough to control foreign ships and say the industry needs tighter regulations. The Chinese carrier, named Shen Neng 1, veered 12 kilometres off course into the Marine Park, raising questions of how this could have happened.
2SER’s Jessica Bineth spoke to Larissa Waters, Spokesperson for the Greens and Paddy Crumlin, Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia.

COAL EXPORTS AND THE SHENG NENG
Perhaps a greater threat to the reef is not the oil seeping from its sides, but the 65 000 tonnes of coal hidden below deck. Qld is currently the worlds biggest coal exporter, and the government is planning to double its capacity over the next 20 years.
The Third Degree's James Hitchcock spoke with Ellie Smith from the 6 Degrees Coal and Climate Collective.

RENEWABLES
All this talk about Renewable Energy can seem a little confusing. At the moment, the State Government’s target for renewable energy consumption sits at 20% by 2020.
But does this target reflect Australia’s capacity for the renewable energy generation? Would it be possible for our country to run completely on 100% renewable sources? And how would we realistically achieve this?
For answers, Katherine Lim spoke to Richard Corkish, Head of UNSW’s Photovoltaic and Renewable Engineering.