Tag Archives: editor
Farmland Price Discovery
SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 Continue reading
Stobart Inks Biomass Supply Deal With Green Fund Manager
Stobart inks biomass supply deal with green fund manager 9th September 2013 By Chris Barry – Editor, North West STOBART, the transport and infrastructure group, has announced a boost for its biomass division, which supplies waste to green energy plants. Its Stobart Biomass Products arm has agreed an exclusive deal with fund manager Greensphere Capital for the supply of up to 1,000,000 tonnes of biomass fuel per year into existing and future biomass power plants. Stobart has been working with Greensphere for more than a year and both parties have identified a number of existing and potential biomass projects for possible investment by funds managed by Greensphere. Greensphere Capital will be investing in a national platform of waste biomass power plants, to which its Framework Agreement with Stobart will provide fuel. The firm manages capital on behalf of institutional investors, including the government-backed Green Investment Bank. Stobart said: “The Master Framework Agreement specifies the terms that individual supply contracts with specific plants will adopt and although at present there is no minimum volume commitment the expectation is that volumes will grow over the coming three years, as plants are acquired and developed. “In addition to the income generated by Stobart Biomass for the supply of the fuel the group will generate revenues from transporting the product and from supporting each new project through to commissioning.” Chief executive Andrew Tinkler said “We believe Greensphere is the ideal partner for Stobart Biomass in this rapidly expanding market and whilst we continue to work with a number of other plant developers this agreement promises to underpin a sizeable element of our biomass supply strategy.” Continue reading
‘A So-Called Market In Invisible Stuff’: The Meaning Of Tony Abbott’s Carbon Rhetoric
July 15, 2013 Ben Cubby Environment Editor Abbott slammed on ‘invisible substance’ Tony Abbott has attracted criticism for saying the ETS is a “so-called market” for an “invisible substance”. Autoplay ON Video feedback on Monday, answering his own rhetorical question about what a carbon trading scheme is. Abbott’s emission was received with glee on social media, where people pointed out that there are many “invisible substances” – natural gas, oxygen and bacteria spring to mind – that both have market value and are essential to life on Earth. It’s the latest in a long campaign to redefine the stuff that comes from burning coal as a “colourless, odourless gas”, a harmless three-way cuddle between one carbon and two oxygen atoms that, happily, provides “plant food”. But, while the “invisible substance” line is facile, it is worth examining a little more closely, because it contains a few hints about the opposition’s strategy. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has ramped up his rhetoric against market regulation of carbon emissions. Photo: Jonathan Ng The phrase “so-called market” not only plays to the sympathies of people suspicious of money markets, it positions the Coalition as the party with the knowledge to discern real markets from fake ones. The “non-delivery” hints at Labor government unreliability, and the “no one” points to the ethereal nature of the carbon exchange mechanism, where permits have a set value for a set period of time, but become worthless after that, like unused movie tickets. The fact that you can’t really make a non-delivery to no-one seems to have escaped Abbott, but the staffer who penned the line could argue the twisted grammar echoes the confusing nature of an ETS that won’t actually reduce emissions for a few years. Best of all, “invisible substance” plugs into a medieval mistrust of scientists and their incomprehensible powers. The sentence links these modern-day alchemists together with the shadowy financiers who would run the so-called markets, trading invisibility while we pay for it. Or something. It suggests that Abbott is prepared to wear some public ridicule in exchange for speaking directly to that part of his supporter base that is unmoved by scientific evidence about global warming. Never mind that the Coalition is proposing to spend about $10 billion of the public’s money fighting an “invisible substance”. That can be hidden behind its earthy rhetoric of “direct action” and a “green army” getting its hands dirty with a hard day’s practical work. What the Coalition is really trying to do is wrest back control of the language of climate change, because if it can control the language, and debate on its own terms, it can win. Read more: http://www.theage.co…l#ixzz2Z8DAdFr5 Continue reading