The Yarra Community Solar (YCS) project is an initiative to establish community owned commercial scale solar PV in the community.

Over four weekends in March and April, volunteers from Darebin Climate Action Now (DCAN) and Yarra Climate Action Now (YCAN) spoke to over 500 people from Reservoir, Preston, Northcote, Fairfield, Alphington and Clifton Hill about their views on the development and funding of large scale solar power in Australia.
We found overwhelming support (87%) for the construction of big solar in Australia.

Yarra Climate Action Now is a proud member of the rural and urban alliance, launched yesterday, calling for a ban across Victoria of all new coal and coal seam gas exploration and development. As of this morning, Forty-five community organisations had joined the alliance.

Ted Baillieu has a plan to destroy the renewable energy jobs and industries in this state, and expand our brown coal development, including starting an export industry. On top of this he wants to spend taxpayer money on a public relations campaign, on behalf of the coal companies, to convince us that brown coal is great. If this crazy plan goes ahead it will be an economic, social and ecological catastrophe for Victoria.

Yarra Council has some interesting ideas. One of which is that painting a road equals building a bike lane. Like some magic talisman, the painted lines will protect you.

There seems to be a fundamental disconnect between what an average person on a bike would call a bike lane and what the Yarra Council thinks a bike lane is.

The City of Yarra is one of the most popular places for cycling in Australia. However, the Yarra City Council’s delay in implementing its Bicycle Strategy is limiting cycling’s growth and putting lives at risk.

During the prime ministership of John Howard, the term ‘greenhouse mafia’ was coined to describe the fossil fuel industry representatives who were so influential they were literally writing the Federal Government’s climate and energy policies. With Martin Ferguson as Labor’s Minister for Resources and Energy, it seems very little has changed. The Energy White Paper is a key example.

Let YCAN rescue you from fashion irrelevance with one of our designer t-shirts.

Brian Walters QC comments on the spying scandal associated with Energy Minister Martin Ferguson, who is using taxpayer money to spy on peaceful community groups who are protesting against his pro-coal and pro-gas fossil fuel agenda. Cross-posted from Brian Walters’ blog.