Philip Hopkins

The Howitt Society has condemned the state government for not including bushfire expertise on the panel that is investigating the future of Gippsland's native forest ... The Howitt Society's bushfire fears come as a cross-section of bush users, miners and prospectors are rebelling against the possibility that several hundred thousand extra hectares of forest could be included in a Great Forest National Park.

A nuclear power station at Loy Yang would create cheaper zero emissions electricity and generate regional economic development, according to the federal Opposition's nuclear energy policy ... Loy Yang is one of seven identified locations at a power station that has closed or is scheduled to close, around Australia ... "Each of these locations offer important technical attributes needed for a zero-emissions nuclear plant..."

At midday on Sunday, June 15 1924, electricity from the new Yallourn Power Station first reached Melbourne when the State Electricity Commission switched on the high voltage transmission line linking Morwell and the Yarraville distribution terminal. It was then the greatest single public infrastructure project Australia had seen, but it passed without fanfare or public ceremony.

In a major boost to Latrobe Valley industry and jobs, Latrobe Magnesium has paved the way for its plant in Morwell to use the company’s own patented technology to eventually produce magnesium for the international market from the Valley’s brown coal fly ash. The company, in a release to the ASX on Monday, announced the completion of commissioning for the first phase of its 1000 tonnes per annum, Stage 1 demonstration plant.

Latrobe City Council has reaffirmed its strong support for the Japanese hydrogen HESC project, stressing the vital role it can play in the Latrobe Valley’s economic future, after a visit to the proponent’s industry hub in Japan. “The visit was successful in reinforcing the support from Latrobe City to be a hub for hydrogen manufacturing and the HESC project... "

Emissions from Latrobe Valley brown coal power stations have fallen in the past year, continuing the trend of the past five and 10 years, the latest release of data from the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) has found. Mercury emissions from the Valley's power stations fell ... noxious oxide emissions were down ... These results continued a long-term decline in Victorian emissions.

Miners and small prospectors fear that the state government's study into the future of Gippsland's forests could lock up swathes of forest and shackle mining as a driver of local economic growth and jobs. Both the Minerals Council of Australia and the Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria (PMAV) are critical of mining's inability to have a say in the process.

A drive to establish new industry and jobs using Latrobe Valley's brown coal in non-energy ways is effectively dead after the state government stopped funding research into the work, a decision denounced as "folly" and "ideological madness" by local leaders. Australian Carbon Innovation at Federation University, which since 2011 has been researching the non-energy use of brown coal that does not produce greenhouse gas emissions, will close on June 30 after the government pulled the plug on funding.

Radial Timber in Yarram, with a strategy already in place for its mainstream timber operation, has embarked on a new approach to using its wood waste that takes the company deeper into the heart of the sustainable, circular economy. Radial has installed a pilot plant that uses pyrolysis technology; organic material, in this case wood residues, is burnt at high temperatures without oxygen to produce biochar, a stable solid that is rich in carbon and can fertilise and endure in soil for thousands of years.

The state government’s new policy to fast-track renewable energy projects by accelerating planning approvals has been strongly attacked by Victoria’s peak farming body and one of the state’s leading planning experts. The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) said the policy was a slap in the face after years of sham consultation with farming communities, while the RMIT Emeritus Professor of Environment and Planning, Michael Buxton, said it would lead to “terrible decisions”, with wind and solar farms being “placed in the wrong location".