Mining Operations on Coal River Mountain

Update: Photos available here. The RAMPS site is having bandwidth issues likely due to the massive amount of interest – see here. http://ht.ly/5JnjD

Earlier Post:

Two protesters have halted blasting on a section of strip-mine on Coal River mountain.  Check out RAMPSCampaign.org for more.  From the group’s press release today:

MARFORK, W.Va. – Two protesters associated with the RAMPS Campaign halted blasting on a portion of Alpha Natural Resources’ Bee Tree mountaintop removal mine on Coal River Mountain today by ascending two trees.  Catherine-Ann MacDougal, 24, and Becks Kolins, 21, are on platforms approximately 80 feet off the ground within 300 feet of active blasting on the mine.  The banners hanging from their platforms read “Stop Strip Mining” and “For Judy Bonds” in honor of strip mining activist Julia “Judy” Bonds of Packsville, W.Va. who died of cancer earlier this year.  The activists demand that Alpha Natural Resources stop strip mining on Coal River Mountain and that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection prohibit future strip mining in the Coal River Watershed.

“I feel, with the keen urgency of extinction, that Alpha Natural Resources cannot be allowed to tear apart Coal River Mountain and allow all those living below it to suffer for their profits. The Coal River watershed cannot tolerate any more damage. There is no way that I can begin to detail the comprehensive destruction that surface mining and mountaintop removal wreak on the forest ecosystem of the southern Appalachian mountains,” said Catherine-Ann MacDougal.

Leaders of the UK Youth Climate Coalition are pretty inspired by what they’ve seen, and they sent a message of solidarity and hope.  Watch to hear about their plans for building a movement across Europe this summer.

Hey everyone!

Power Shift US looks like it has been going amazingly well!  – Great work to you all!

We were so inspired by what you were getting up to, that we thought we would send Power Shift US a message from Power Shift UK and Europe…

Enjoy!

Image via the Working Families Party

The fracking moratorium bill was vetoed, but Governor David Patterson issued an executive order in its place that does a more limited version of the same thing.  The bill would have banned all wells, but the executive order only bans ‘horizontal wells’ – the kind where a drill rig drills sideways to get gas below other people’s property (and drinking water).

The plus : most wells are horizontal, so the order has a big impact.  The minus: polluted groundwater flows, so it doesn’t really matter where its contaminated.  And the fact that the legislature could send such a clear message on a moratorium and that Patterson still felt the need to ‘bend to industry pressure’ is worrisome.

This issue is far from going away anywhere, and New York is likely to continue to be a central piece of the Haliburton/gas industry strategy to open up every bit of gas to extraction.  The EPA is also conducting a 2 year study (2010-2012) on the safety of gas fracking.  Residents of New York hope that Lisa Jackson spends more time in impacted communities listening to stories of residents and less time listening to the oil companies.

Participants in the Fall Summit tree planting action, Kayford Mountain

We at Climate Ground Zero would like to thank everyone that helped make the Mountain Justice Fall Summit on Kayford Mountain such a huge success.  In our largest action yet, forty-four activists walked on to the Samples Surface Mine planting over 30 trees, mostly the currently threatened hemlock, and marching a banner through some of the active area of the mine.  We sent a clear message about the ongoing catastrophe that is MTR, the inadequecy of currently reclamation, and the need to fund true reclamation and reclamation jobs.  Mine security called the police, but, for the first time in this campaign, they allowed all the activists to return to the Stanley Heirs Park. This shows the growing strength of our movement.  We hope this event emboldens others across Appalachia to take similar action.  We were honored by the prese.  We would also like to express our deep gratitude and admiration for Larry Gibson and the Keepers of the Mountains Foundation for hosting us and for his fearless and inspiration leadership.  We are all in your debt.

Things aren’t slowing down around here either.  We recently annouced our 2nd January action camp from 3rd to 24th. Just like last year, the camp will feature intensive training in all the skills needed to carry out and support nonviolent direct action.  The camp is a fulltime, three-week commitment.  Our first January camp culminated in a 9 day tree sit halting blasting on part of Coal River Mountain.  We hope multiple actions can emerge from this camp and strongly encourage anyone who wants to take a stand against MTR to apply now.

See below to see if our road-show is coming to a college near you from Nov 27th – Dec 8th to learn more.

While our movement is gathering momentum and growing, we need your help more than ever as the situation on the ground in coal country only grows more urgent.   We have gotten disturbing news from the Friends of Blair Mountain that mining is closer than ever to the battlefield and the coal companies are now patrolling the area with armed guards.  The second Battle of Blair Mountain is brewing as the coal companies seem determined to destroy this mountain that is a powerful symbol of resistence and one of the most important sites in American labor history.  Currently, Massey Energy is applying for yet another permit to mine Blair Mountain.  Comments are due by November 26th, so please take a moment now to let the WV DEP know that you oppose the Pine Branch permit. We won’t let them erase our history without a fight.

We also need your voice at the EPA.  Last April, the EPA announced strict new rules for valley fill permit.  Since then it has been questionable how serious the EPA is about stopping valley fills, but the new guidance still represents another important tool for holding their feet to the fire.  It’s out for public comment until Decmber 1st, so tell the EPA you support the strictest possible limits on valley fill permits.

Finally, we are happy to announce that our heroic civil defense team of lawyers have formed their own nonprofit law firm, the Appalachian Center for Justice.  They have stayed busy.  Unfortunately, the WV Supreme Court dismissed our appeal of the campaign’s first restraining orders and contempt charges on a technicality, but our team is not deterred and managed to win us the right to inspect the Twilight mine.  (Though our own Charles Suggs was barred from coming along, due to his recidivism.)  There’s a lot to be done to prepare for the federal civil trial next year.  So if any one is interested in supporting the civil defense effort financial or with volunteer hours, contact the law firm at the link above.

As always, thank you so much for all of your support.

Road Show Dates

• Nov 27th: Iron Rail, New Orleans, LA
• Nov 29th: James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA contact: Katie huszczka <@> gmail.com
• Nov 30th: St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s, MD contact: Aaron french.aaron <@> gmail.com
• Dec 1st: Red Emma’s, Baltimore, MD 7pm
• Dec 2nd: Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA contact: Anjali a.b.cadambi <@> gmail.com
• Dec 3rd: Williams College, Williamstown, MA contact: Sasha sm2 <@> williams.edu
• Dec 5th: Northhampton, MA contact: Colin, colinflood802 <@> gmail.com
• Dec 6th: Rochester, NY contact: Leah, lwa7740 <@> rit.edu
• Dec 7th: Pittsburgh, PA contact: Radio, radio.oh.radio <@> gmail.com
• Dec 8th: Morgantown, WV contact: Miranda, miranda.rae.miller <@> gmail.com

Coal mine deaths, fines and significant violations for the 10 largest coal mine controllers, 2000-2009 | The Coal Truth | Investigative Reporting Workshop-1

Speaking of protection, who actually needs government protection every day?  Coal miners do.  A recent report shows that Massey Energy is the deadliest coal company in America.  Even before the April 5th explosion that killed 29 miners, Massey coal and its operators had the highest number of deaths between 2000 and 2009.  MSNBC details just how bad Massey’s safety record is, even as Don Blankenship claims to make safety a top priority.

We need enhanced patdowns of coal companies.  We need to take seriously the threat that the heartland of America faces every day from the reckless and exploitative industries that keep us hooked on fossil fuels.  Miners do hard work every day and deserve our admiration and respect.  Van Jones, speaking at a fundraiser for the Ecology Center in Michigan, said it far better than I can:

This morning 80,000 Americans got up and went to work in the coal mines. And they are America’s heroes, okay? They risk their lives, their lungs, their limbs every day to go down there and keep the lights on and power America the way we’ve always done it. 80,000 people. Nobody would disrespect them.

Well, guess what? 80,000 people got up and went to work in the wind industry in America today. 80,000. In this economy, this battered economy. The solar industry, this morning, supported 46,000 jobs. 46,000 Americans went to work in the solar industry TODAY. Now that doesn’t count Smart Batteries, Smart Grid, biofuels, energy sustainability and on and on. The energy sector, just energy, has already grown jobs at that clip.

Now here’s what you need to know. You will never double the number of people working coal mines. You’re not going to have 180,000 in ten years. You’re going to have 40,000. Those jobs have been going down, down and they’re not going to go up. Because what they’re doing now, they’re blowing up the tops of mountains. They’re asking those people that live in Appalachia to blow up their grandmother’s mountains and scrape the coal out. You don’t need a lot of workers for that. So this mountain top removal is not only destroying America’s beauty. It’s destroying American jobs.

So you’ll never have 180,000 coal miners. You’ll have 40,000. But you could QUADRUPLE the number of people that work in the wind industry with just a few small policy decisions in Congress. You could quadruple the number of people that work in every other green field. So we should not run and hide when it comes to having this conversation. Everything that is good for the environment, everything that is good for fighting global warming, is a job. It’s a job, it’s a contract. It’s on onshore opportunity. Solar panels don’t put themselves up. Wind turbines don’t manufacture themselves. So let’s be clear about that.

Can we stand with miners and switch America off of fossil fuels? Coal mining is on its way out, but the legacy of coal miners shouldn’t be diminished at all. We should be honoring the contributions that coal miners in Appalachia have made to our national heritage, which include far more than digging up coal. Jeff Biggers reports on the fight for labor rights spearheaded by Appalachian coal miners as we fight the second battle of Blair Mountain:

As New Zealand mourns the loss of 29 coal miners, every American coal miner–and every American who relies on coal-fired energy in 48 states–should be thankful for the Blair Mountain battlefield and the unending labor union struggles for basic human rights and workplace safety.

On Friday’s November 26th deadline, Manchin will have the opportunity to either issue a public comment in support of saving the Blair Mountain Battlefield–the most important and endangered historic coal mining and labor heritage site–or silently acquiesce to Massey Energy’s application for a 554-acre strip mining permit that will destroy parts of the Blair Mountain battlefield.

To strip mine the hallowed Blair Mountain Battlefield–site of the largest armed insurrection for labor rights in 1921–would be like desecrating Plymouth Rock.

So as you get indecently patted down due to an overzealous government regulatory agency, just think of the coal miners who needlessly risk their lives every day because the government looks the other way. Lets have the conversation about our national heritage and national security this thanksgiving. Lets talk about the mandate to promote the general welfare of our people, and how we can provide for the common defense against climate change that such a threat demands. In closing, here’s the pre-amble of the US constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

After negotiating with the police and planting all the trees, all 44 were allowed to leave the site without repurcussions.

The fight over mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia revolves around jobs. Even though the highly mechinized practice has drastically reduced the number of people employed in the mining industry, the proponents of mining say that West Virginia is poor and needs the jobs. Opponents say healthy and prosperous economies can be created in the area if only the destructive and poisionsous processes of the coal companies are stopped and the natual wealth is not destroyed.

John Johnson, forester and environmentalist said, “The coal industry does not attempt to return the landscape to its previous biodiversity – leaving it up to the citizens to reclaim it themselves. Fixing the ruined landscape will provide long term jobs for those put out of work by the abolition of mountaintop removal.”

At 12:30 today, hundreds of people rallied at Stanley Heirs Park, adjacent to Larry Gibson’s home on Kayford Mountain. Statesman Ken Hechler and Kayford Mountainkeeper Larry Gibson, along with two miners from Colombia lead the march to the mine site, with participants aged 18 to 96 years old.

Lifelong Coal River Valley resident Junior Walk says, “Coal companies sure as hell aren’t going to take it upon themselves to do something about it – some one’s got to do it.”

44 people walked out onto the mine site to plant 30 hemlocks, pen oak and tulip poplar trees, as well as planting chesnuts, walnuts, acorns. Some deployed a banner reading: “EPA We’re Doing Your Job – Over 500 Mountains Destroyed – Reclamation Jobs Now!”

Mine security vehicles and police showed up moments later and negotiated with the activists. By 3:30pm all the trees had been planted and the protesters left the site without repurcussions. While technically tresspassing, it looks like the police didn’t have the taste for arresting folks who are calling attention to what the mining companies should be doing.

To see just how agregious this shortcoming is of mining company policy towards reclamation, check out this report from NRDC earlier this year:

For years the mining industry has exploited a federal statutory provision that exempts them from restoring the land to its approximate original contour if there is a plan to develop the land for “equal or better economic use” such as “industrial, commercial, residential or public use.”

However, NRDC’s analysis – also using aerial imagery – confirms that nearly 90% of mountaintop removal sites have not been converted to economic uses.

That’s right: Mining companies don’t love mountains but they love bragging about how they restore mine sites for the benefit of local communities. Our study exposes Big Coal’s broken promises by proving that post-mining economic prosperity is a big, flat lie.

Coal country politicians have largely supported the mining industry, even to the extreme detriment of American heritage, community health and the economic well being of Appalachia. In an election where Democrats and Republicans alike are rushing to bow at the altar of coal, voters in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennesee, Virginia and elsewhere are often left to regulartory agencies like the Office of Surface Mining, the EPA, state DEP agencies and Mining and Mineral Services. Just getting them to do their job enforcing existing laws (like requiring reclamation) will be a huge victory in the fight to end mountaintop removal.

Want to help?

1.Email chfo@osmre.gov (Roger Calhoun chfo@osmre.gov Head field operator of Office of Surface Mining and Reclamaiton) Ask him why people are threatened with arrest for reclaiming mine sites? Shouldn’t we be paying Appalachian residents to do reclamation work, not arresting them? Send them a link to this blog, or a photo or article, and make sure they feel the heat.

2. Go to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and fill out their online form, asking the same questions.

For updates, check climategroundzero.org, follow @app_rising and @coalisfilthy, and check facebook.com/apprising. For more photos visit the Photobucket Album All photos taken by Jacob Mack-Boll

Today, thousands of Appalachians and concerned citizens are trying to change that, by taking to the streets in DC with all the fierce determination and creative enthusiasm that the steep Appalachian mountains engender. Today Appalachia is rising up to demand an end to mountaintop removal coal mining.

The action’s already started – check out these pictures from an early morning occupation of the Army Corp of engineers building.

There’s no one person that can put an end to MTR – it takes a team. The US Army Corps of engineers directly approves permits for the practice, granting companies like Massey and Peabody the ‘rights’ to bury over 2000 miles of head-water streams and blow the tops off 450 mountains. But they use standards set by the EPA, which determine what the acceptable levels of pollution and stream destruction are. The politics are set by the Obama administration – how to balance justice for the Appalachian people with the ever-shrinking but significant number of coal mining jobs, with the political power of coal company war-chests grown fat from years of raping the land?

Appalachia Rising is intended to make that choice easier for them. Over the weekend 700 Appalachian residents, retired coal miners, faith leaders, scientists, artists and students crammed into the Georgetown conference center (a bit of a shock for the usual Georgetown residents) and learned how to take down MTR. Today, the vision of Appalachian’s like Bo Webb and Judy Bonds and many more will be realized – an uprising in a long Appalachian tradition of plucky determination, transplanted directly to the heart of DC.

There will be continuous updates at Appalachiarising.org and follow @App_Rising.

Photo: Timothy Jay

By Shani Tager, Robert Price and Daniel Sharp

The banner read, ‘don’t undermine our farms’ as an unlikely scene unfolded in Australia at Queensland’s State Parliament on August 4 with ten kids on pedal tractors, two people hanging a banner off the roof of parliament house, a platypus staring down the police, “the frackman”, ten members of parliament, a federal senator and a senate candidate, an American gas activist, author and filmmaker and a large crowd that included a few busloads of farmers who made the three to four hour trip into the city.

Farmers and environmentalists, concerned citizens and rural landholders, children and grandparents rallied together at Queensland parliament house to demand protection of farmland from coal and gas mining.  The groups; Six Degrees, Friends of the Earth , Save our Darling Downs, Community Climate Network Queensland, Friends of Felton, the Basin Sustainability Alliance, Western Downs Alliance, Wandoan Clean Foods Alliance, the Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group and the Queensland Conservation Council are all concerned about the threats posed to valuable cropping land, rural communities, the Great Artesian Basin and our climate. Together they brought three simple demands to the Queensland parliament –

1. Ban coal and coal seam gas mining on good quality agricultural land
2. Institute a moratorium on coal seam gas until the environmental and social     impacts are assessed.
3. Support renewable energy and sustainable agriculture.

The Frackman. Photos: Western Downs Alliance

In light of the plan to put about 40,000 gas wells across the fertile Darling Downs, one of Australia’s most agriculturally productive areas, American filmmaker and author Tara Meixsell warned the crowd that America’s recent unhappy experience with gas mining could be Queensland’s near future.

The expansion of Queensland’s coal and gas mining industries is rampant. The Queensland government is committed to doubling our coal exports. Open cut coal mines, underground coal gasification, and coal seam gas projects are being planned and developed at a frightening pace and it seems nothing is sacred. The Great Artesian Basin, an enormous underground aquifer which supports agriculture, communities and ecosystems across vast swathes of the Australian continent is under threat of contamination.

The 2.2% of Queensland which is prime cropping land is afforded no protection under current laws, risking future food security. Nature refuges have no protection. The health and livelihoods of rural communities are under threat and entire towns actually face being wiped off the map, cemeteries, war-memorials and all. Waterways are threatened by carcinogenic chemicals, heavy metals and salination from mining activities. And all of this is being vigorously pursued despite the science telling us we need to phase out fossil fuels if we don’t want climate change to wreack havoc with human societies and the plant and animal kingdoms.
Pedal Tractor Procession

Photo: Emma-Kate Rose

Modelled on a citizens assembly, the rally heard the voices of those being ignored by our government and sent a clear message that we will not sit idly by as Queensland is turned into an industrial wasteland. The banner was hung by demonstrators from Six Degrees who snuck past police and security and managed to go undetected before scaling scaffolding, traversing the roof and climbing along a ledge to unfurl their banner. They surrendered to police peacefully and were detained for questioning and later charged with “unregulated high risk activity” and trespass, they have a court date set for late August.

Amongst the speakers at the event was Mr Drew Hutton of Six Degrees
“People won’t just sit back and watch as the Queensland Government gives coal and gas mining companies the okay to turn our irreplaceable farmland and environment into an industrial wasteland,” Mr Hutton said.

Platypus tries to enter State Parliament Photo: sixdegrees.org.au

Dave Armstrong was one of the many farmers from the Darling Downs who voiced their concerns “We’re fighting the complete industrialisation of land that has the best farming soil in the nation….we simply want a pause so that the science of what is happening is properly
explored”, said Mr Armstrong.

“This demonstration is a People’s Assembly, combining the strength of the farming and environmental movements to put pressure on the government to stop the reckless expansion of coal and coal seam gas mining on high quality agricultural land and in the midst of vulnerable rural communities,” said Mr Hutton

Farmer and Friends of Felton spokesperson Rob McCreath spoke at the protest. “Mining destroys farmland, pollutes rivers, and drains aquifers. Burning coal accelerates global warming, which leads to more frequent and severe droughts. There is a solution – it’s called renewable energy” said Mr McCreath.

For more information about coal and gas mining and the campaign against their destructive effects visit www.sixdegrees.org.au. Click here for photos from the day and here to watch the speakers and see the news coverage.

For more information about the groups who participated in this action visit these websites

Six Degrees http://www.sixdegrees.org.au/
Friends of the Earth Brisbane http://www.brisbane.foe.org.au/
Friends of Felton http://www.fof.org.au/
Save Our Darling Downs http://www.sodd.com.au/
Queensland Conservation Council http://www.qccqld.org.au/
Community Climate Network Queensland http://www.climatenetworkqld.org/
Coal4Breakfast http://coal4breakfast.com.au/
Basin Sustainability Alliance http://www.basinsustainabilityalliance.org/
Western Downs Alliance http://westerndowns.group-action.com/

A gas explosion in a San Francisco Suburb last night destroyed an entire city block, killing at least 6 people and destroying over 50 homes.  The San Bruno disaster started at 6pm when a fireball erupted from a ruptured gas line, shooting flames 1000 feet into the air.

Today it looks like a war zone – the aftermath of an epic battle raged between firefighters and the dangerous chemicals we keep so tantalizingly close. Burned out cars, homes reduced to rubble, a 15′ crater in the ground – we suffered a deadly attack – by who?

“If it is ultimately determined that we were responsible for the cause of the incident, we will take accountability,” Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said in an e-mailed statement Thursday evening. But later Thursday the company’s president, Christopher Johns, said he didn’t know what sparked the explosion.

Haven’t we learned that it hardly matters what company is in charge?  Isn’t it time to levy strict punishments on the industry that keeps us fixed, and on politicians that refuse to provide alternatives?

Take a second this morning, on the eve of 9-11, on the eve of the national day of service, on eve of koran burning day, and ask yourself at what cost fossil fuels become worth it?  Look at these photos and ponder.

A friend of mine used to joke that global warming is caused by the angry souls of dinosaurs who don’t want to be disturbed from their geologic resting places.  After this year of deadly disasters, not to mention record heat and flooding and forest fires and droughts around the world, that doesn’t seem so absurd anymore.

Guest post By Leigh Ewbank. Leigh is a Melbourne native and a 2009 summer fellow at the California-based progressive think tank, the Breakthrough Institute. Leigh consults on framing and messaging and is Director of Online Communications for Beyond Zero Emissions.

The Australian Youth Climate Coalition is running its own initiatives to get climate change on the agenda. The youth-run organisation will hold the final of three Power Shift conferences this weekend. In an effort to influence the election, each of the conferences were located in areas that ‘represent crucial senate races and marginal seats in the Federal Election,’ according to AYCC spokesperson Lucy Manne. ‘Young people will make up 20 per cent of the voting population this election,’ Manne explains, ‘and the Power Shift conferences will ensure that the issues they care about will be heard.’

Climate change has been a hot-button issue in 2010. In April, the Labor government announced it would defer its key climate change policy, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, to 2013. The CPRS legislation would have established a domestic emissions-trading scheme and a price on carbon with the aim of achieving a 5 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020. The decision to defer the CPRS coincided with a decline in public support for then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and resulted in a successful leadership challenge from Deputy PM Julia Gillard.

See the AYCC scorecard on how the major parties do on climate

Prior to calling a national election, new leader Julia Gillard pledged to ‘reprosecute the case’ for emissions trading. Labor has since committed to a scaled-down climate policy agenda. In lieu of an emissions trading scheme, a re-elected Labor government will invest $1 billion in smart grid infrastructure, provide subsidies for more fuel-efficient vehicles in a ‘cash for clunkers’ program, and establish a ‘citizens assembly’ to determine ‘community consensus’ on climate policy.

The political opposition, the Liberal/National coalition, is committed to a 5 per cent carbon reduction target but rule out carbon-pricing measures. Opposition leader Tony Abbott has branded carbon pricing ‘a great big tax’ and has proposed direct action measures as an alternative approach. A Coalition government would invest $3.4 billion over four years in an Emissions Reduction Fund. The fund would provide grants for companies to reduce carbon emissions, a ‘green army’ of volunteers to plant 20 million trees, and seed funding for three Clean Energy Hubs.

The AYCC and Walk Against Warming organisers argue that both Labor and the Coalition have inadequate climate policies. ‘Unfortunately neither of the major parties are offering credible climate policies,’ says the AYCC’s Lucy Manne. ‘Neither have committed to putting a price-tag on pollution, or announced sufficient investment in clean energy.’

McKenzie-McHarg adds that ‘both major parties have fallen way behind the electorate on the issue of climate change. The Rudd/Gillard government promised action back in 2007 and has failed to deliver. The Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott doesn’t even believe in climate change.’

The national day of action is a worthy attempt to put the spotlight on climate change in the 2010 election, but is unlikely to translate into new election commitments. According to polling, climate change is a low priority for voters in 2010. An Essential Research poll (PDF 1.51MB) undertaken early in the campaign revealed that “addressing climate change” was a priority for just 12 per cent of voters – ranking ninth out of 15 possible issues. The level of support was dramatically less than that received by the top three priority issues: economic management (63 per cent); health care (55 per cent); and protecting jobs and industries (24 per cent). A more recent poll conducted for the Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF Australia found climate change would influence voting intentions for 78 per cent of voters (sample of 2200), but the high figure presents climate change in isolation from other issues and may overestimate the electoral impact of the issue.

While the future of domestic climate policy rests on which party is elected to govern Australia, it also depends on the composition of the senate. There is a real possibility that the Australian Greens will gain the balance of power in the senate. Such a development will have implications for climate policy as The Greens support much stronger climate change measures than either of the two major parties. A balance of power role will give the Greens leverage to influence government policy.

The direction of national climate policy will be known with the result of the August 21 poll.