Mullumbimby Community Action Network

Originally published 15Nov2015

The good news: ENOVA and COREM Other: SHENHUA

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ENOVA ENERGY

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Enova Community Energy is set to be Australia’s pioneering, community-owned renewable energy retailer. As a social enterprise committed to creating local jobs, delivering economic, social and environmental benefits, this is the first time a community-owned renewable energy retailer will be established in Australia.

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Right now there is a unique opportunity for us in the Northern Rivers to own our own clean energy retailer!    It’s time to end domination by the big corporations and take control of our own renewable energy supplies. It’s a clean energy revolution!! 

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Too good to be true?  Check out Enova Energy!!    Options to buy a share close on 27th November, so be quick and support our local renewable energy retailer to get off the ground; Australia’s first community-owned renewable energy retailer and supplier.

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DIRTY ENERGY?   Where does your energy come from?  Is it from renewable sources or is it from coalmining?  Does your supplier invest in fracking?  How far is your electricity transported?  Now we have a choice, or we will do if enough people buy shares so that Enova can meet the regulator’s requirement of $3m to get started. 

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SHARE COST:  Shares cost $1,000 each (you can share a share with a friend).  Enova need more people to buy a share before deadline of 27 November.

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Furthermore, if you have solar panels on your roof and you’re getting a feed in tariff (FIT) from the government, this rebate will end late 2016.  Enova Energy will be offering you the best available FIT at that time and also sell renewable energy (thru the grid) at the lowest rates.

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ROOF SPACE RACE   Advertisements by Origin and AGL in the cities offer to put solar panels on roofs free of charge, maintain them and give the homeowner discounted electricity.  Make sure your rooftop power station benefits you and your local community!  Enova will offer advice and technology if you want to put up your own panels, reduce power use, or innovate a renewable energy project.

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LOCAL MULTIPLIER EFFECT    Remember during the Woolworths campaign, one of the reasons for opposing their business model was because of profits being sucked out of community.  With a locally owned business the Local Multiplier Effect comes into action; the money circulates within and benefits the region.

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INVEST!   So if you want to be a pioneering member of Australia’s GreenPower revolution, investing in a clean energy future, reducing climate change, then please buy a share in Enova Energy (and be quick!).  Download prospectus and apply for shares at www.enovaenergy.com.au.

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DAVE RAWLINS ON FB ...

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People power works! The Northern Rivers is nearly CSG Free. Now let’s tell climate polluters we don’t want dirty coal-fired electricity either! Enova will be a community owned electricity retailer where customers can buy clean, green electricity. Enova supports new renewable electricity generation projects and will pay a high feed-in tariff for residential rooftop solar. Enova is the game changer for using electricity and protecting our climate. However, Enova is not yet in business. They need more shareholders before November 27. If they don’t get the investment from the community then this opportunity to replace our archaic, polluting and greedy electricity system is lost, and all investments pledged will be returned.

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COREM: Community Owned Renewable Energy Mullumbimby

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Another fantastic new initiative by locals is COREM.  They will be working with Enova, and will supply them with renewable energy.  COREM is a local group of enthusiasts who are currently raising funds to get solar panels on the roof of the Drill Hall Theatre (DHT); the resulting savings will be shared between DHT and COREM who will use that money to fund the next solar project for the Neighbourhood Centre.   $17,000 is the amount needed for the DHT project, and they’ve already raised nearly half that through donations.  Look out for solar-flair collectors at the Mullum Music Festival.  Download the CORE “how to” guide here if you want to set up your own CORE project.  As they say, everyone benefits – including the earth and future generations.

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COREM MEETINGS:  RSL Club, Mullumbimby, each Thursday fortnight, 6.30pm (old squash courts building).  Next meeting 26.11.15.

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SHENHUA’S PROPOSED COAL MINE – LIVERPOOL PLAINS

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And now for the bad news.  Last weekend I went to the Liverpool Plains Harvest Festival next to site of proposed Shenhua Open Cut Coal Mine.  The Liverpool Plains are magnificent floodplain, flat with far horizons.  The soil has the texture and colour of chocolate cake crumbs and it’s extraordinarily fertile, probably one of the most productive areas in the world where they grow 2 crops a year, summer and winter.  The alluvial soil (deposited by floods) is sometimes 50m deep and below the surface is an intricate network of aquifers.  Known as Australia’s foodbowl, crops in the Plains yield about 40% more than anywhere else.  See ABC’s Landline doco here.

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The Shenhua Chinese state-owned Watermark Mine will cover 35 square kilometres, a large chunk of the size of Sydney.  And that’s just for starters, when they’ve mined the current licence area they’ll want to go deeper where the reserves are 2/3 greater.  Shenhua insist that there will be no impact on water quality even though they’ll be digging down 300m and some aquifers are only 20m below the surface.  The Liverpool Plains have the 2nd largest ground water system in the Murray Darling Basin.   The draw-down effect of the pit will attract water into the hole as at nearby Werris Creek Mine, as exposed by Greens Jeremy Buckingham on FB.  The Guardian article about the approval is here and shows a clip of angry Barnaby Joyce blaming Labor for this.

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Have you ever driven through the open cut coal mines in the Hunter Valley?  It’s like driving through a moonscape for hours and it’s heartbreaking.  A farmer’s presentation at the weekend showed a slide image of a dinner plate with a 50c coin on it.  The 50c represented the size of the coal reserves of the Hunter Valley, and the dinner plate represented those of the Liverpool Plains. 

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The mine would destroy 738 ha of endangered Box-Gum Grassy Woodland, 847 ha of critical koala habitat and would irreparably damage the cultural heritage of the Gomeroi people.

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Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt told Alan Jones that the approval is conditional until the water plan is signed off by an independent scientific committee.  Write to Premier Mike Baird (who still needs to grant Shenhua a NSW mining lease) and NSW Minister for Resources and Energy Anthony Roberts asking them not to grant the mining lease.  More hopeful is writing to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as he used to be Minister for the Environment and Water, has visited the area, spoken to farmers and is knowledgeable about the water issues.  Apparently Shenhua like to be onside with community and you can contact them here.

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SHELL ABANDONS DRILLING ALASKAN ARCTIC

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Finally, great news!  After 10 years and $7 billion, Shell abandoned its plans to drill in the Alaskan Arctic.  According to New Internationalist magazine, which has a special edition Paris climate summit: Heroes, villains and why there is still hope, “Shell’s U-turn wasn’t driven by government action or international climate agreements.  It was years of public protest, direct action, online organising and legal challenges – particularly by Indigenous communities – that delayed the project and ratcheted up the costs.”

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Woohoo!!

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LENNOX HEAD WALK FOR CLIMATE CHANGE – Sunday 29th November 10.30am

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On the eve of the Paris Summit, Lennox Head will be hosting a walk along the beach for climate change.  Meet at the bus stop in Ballina Street, Lennox Head.  This is organised by Amelia Hicks, who is also involved in setting up COREL (Community Owned Renewable Energy Lennox), inspired by COREM.

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Cheers

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Deborah 

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