How much tax #DirtyEnergy companies pay is largely irrelevant to the question we were discussing, since a company that is both taxed and receives significant subsidies will do better than a competitor (e.g. a renewable energy company) that is taxed and doesn't receive those subsidies. I probably should have said something like that. (I could also have made a point about government funds not being derived from taxation, but I really didn't get the vibe that that was going to be particularly fruitful approach for this gentleman.)

Instead I replied that dirty energy companies pay relatively little tax due to exploiting tax loopholes (that they also lobby to put in). He scoffed in disbelief and changed the subject.

With that context, now you'll understand how embarrassed I was to have just stumbled across this table for 2020–21 and realise I was wrong.

Of the twenty-four largest dirty energy companies in Australia, only one of them paid “relatively little” income tax that year.

#TaxAvoidance #TaxJustice #Auspol #DirtyEnergySubsidies #DirtyEnergyDirtyPolitics

After giving a climate talk to a community group the other day, one guy came up to me to "give feedback" (i.e. complain that I didn't focus enough on telling people how to cut their personal #CarbonFootprint - to use the phrase that #BP really wants us to focus on).

This led into a discussion about why individual consumer choices always have the system stacked against them. As part of that point, I mentioned the enormous scale of #DirtyEnergySubsidies (>$7t globally each year, though I focused on $11b annually in Australia, which is a widely cited figure based on a narrower definition of subsidy; he seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn't care as much if I wasn't talking about his country.)

Upon hearing of these subsidies (which were apparently news to him), he said "yeah, but how much tax do they contribute?"

1/2

#Auspol #TaxJustice #FossilFuelSubsidies #DirtyEnergyDirtyPolitics #DirtyEnergy #SystemChangeNotClimateChange

@swearyanthony I was actually just thinking a few hours before seeing this: "if I were a #billionaire #DirtyEnergy #plutocrat and I wanted to pollute public discourse, wouldn't I want to set up various awards to give my corporate megaphone (#MurdochPress etc) a veneer of 'quality journalism'? Hmmm,I wonder what the history and funding of the Walkleys is?"

The usual line from the #DirtyEnergy spokespeople elected to parliament is that Australia is too small a player for Oz energy policy to make any significant contribution to #ClimateDisruption.

It's always been a lie. Australia has always punched above its weight when it comes to climate responsibility, having the largest fossil fuel resources per capita in the world.

For years, courts have even largely accepted the government's 'drug dealer' defence when it comes to approving new coal and gas projects ("if we don't sell it, someone else will, who doesn't even have our standards!").

But if you want to see the lie laid bare, check this story. The mere possibility of temporary industrial action at a single Australian dirty energy company is already having global impacts on gas markets.

#Auspol #DirtyEnergyDirtyPolitics #climate #Woodside #ClimateLies #BlowingSmoke

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/20/global-markets-brace-for-supply-disruptions-as-woodside-energy-workers-prepare-to-strike

@jmcleod Too expensive, too slow, unpopular, illegal, likely to leave generational clean-up/decommissioning bill, but might distract momentarily from necessary steps to keep the planet semi-habitable in such a way as to prop open the window of profitability for the #dirtyenergy industry just a little longer? #Dutton is in!

@JIMWARRAH The system is functioning as designed: to preserve extent centres of power from challenges, whether those challenges come from women speaking out in protest or women speaking out in naming their assailants.

This is #NotABug but a feature.

The same legal system delivers more planet-wrecking profit-making to the already wealthy on the say-so of a #corrupt government that has consistently aligned with #DirtyEnergy while denying the scientifically-backed evidence of #Indigenous truth-tellers.

@neotoy Yet actual full-scale grid-connected #nuclearfusion is still (at best) decades away, which is too late. The more attention it gets now, the more it lulls people into a false sense of security and so the slower we make the necessary moves (sprint!) away from #DirtyEnergy.

So in the short to medium term, this news actually functions as an extension of the window during which dirty energy interests can profit off their toxic, deadly, #ecocidal and unnecessary product.

Today's political prisoner by @firstdogonthemoon.

"You are welcome to argue that Australia's state and federal governments (along with the police) are not simply the armed wing of the #FossilFuelIndustry... Write your explanation on a postcard and mail it to your grandchildren"

#ClimateProtest #auspol #AusPol2022 #FreeVioletCoco #ClimateCriminals #DirtyEnergyDirtyPolitics #DirtyEnergy #CriminalisationOfDissent

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/07/violet-coco-is-in-prison-meanwhile-the-fossil-fuel-people-are-really-getting-value-for-money

Over the last fifteen years, I have written hundreds of thousands of words about #climateanxiety and our emotional responses to #planetary crises. So when I recommend this 20 min #video from #OurChangingClimate as a great summary of so many aspects of the topic, I am not doing so lightly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B07DLgzOQEg.

#ClimateAnxiety is normal, healthy and widespread. It is how people of empathy generally respond amidst a world on fire. But dysfunctional coping strategies (especially forms of avoidance) are everywhere. These 'work' for the short-term, but when employed en masse, feed into the dysfunctional-by-design politics around climate that has played out very profitably for the #dirtyenergy industry over the last few decades.

This video is 100% worth watching for the vast majority of you who, like most of us, experience the grief, anger, exhaustion, stultifying dread of seeing the future go up in smoke while the arsonists make bank.

The video is also available on #Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/occ-how-you-can-fight-climate-anxiety.

For the purposes of orientation, context and conversation, here are some of my friends, enemies, obsessions, experiences and distractions:
#climate #climatejustice #climateethics #auspol #dirtyenergydirtypolitics #inequality #plutocracy #capitalism #solarpunk #journalism #analysis #geopolitics #climatescience #energy #coal #oil #gas #fossilfuels #dirtyenergy #degrowth #rewilding #leaveitintheground #biodiversity #ecology #ecologicalethics #ecosystems #compost #eattherich #composttherich #Gadigal #Indigenous #alwayswasalwayswillbe #decolonise #landback #whistleblowing #transparency #privacy #ebike #cycling #pedestrian #publictransport #fuckcars #NSWpol #education #patriarchy #transrightsarehumanrights #antifa #christofascism #fascism #acab #feminism #patriarchy #ableism #adhd #neurodiversity #cancer #Scotland #ukpol #Sydney #NSWpol #edinburgh #dnd #dnd5e #obsidian #mastodon #curiosity #kindness #courage

Q. How much will it cost to stop catastrophic #climatedisruption?
A. Far less than you probably expect.

If you look at the budgets of oil and gas companies (#dirtyenergy), and look at *just* the amounts allocated to their expansion plans over the next decade (not including the costs of running their current wells, rigs and pipelines, nor the record-profits they are delivering to #billionaire owners, nor the billions they spend on their ongoing #climatedisinformationcampaign), this amount earmarked for unnecessary expansion is larger than the cost required to implement sufficient #renewableenergy (including energy storage) to keep global warming to #+1.5ºC.

There is more required than the transition of stationary energy sources, but this is a massive part of the issue, and completely affordable for everyone. The only real drawback is that the current crop of billionaires make less profit. (And a tiny fraction of workers globally employed by oil and gas would need to re-train, but that needs to happen anyway.)

Source: "Navigating Energy Transitions" report from IISD, 2022, discussed in this very insightful video (I've linked to the relevant section, but the whole thing is worth watching): https://youtu.be/pujOh4YaP7s?t=262

Its nice to know that #ElonMusk can diversify into #CoalSeamGas (ie. #fracking) and because he is a big donor to #NGO corporations they won't speak up about it.

#fossilFuels #coalSeamGas #CSG #environmentalVandal #environmentalVandalism #earthquakes #dirtyEnergy #greenWashing #openWashing #corruption #sierraClub #climateChange #NGOs #riggedEconomy #neoFeudalism #robberBarons #corporateState #howVeryKeynesian