CSIRO Accused of "Push Polling" to Obtain Support for Clean Coal Technology. (May 8, 2007)

The Canberra Times Rosslyn Beeby has a disconcerting piece in today's edition.

[Push polling: a technique used to influence or alter the view of participants taking part in a poll under the guise of conducting a survey without bias]

Ms Beeby reports "Professor Philip Jennings of Murdoch University's school of energy engineering and Dr Mark Diesendorf from the University of NSW Institute of Environmental Studies have dismissed the research report [based on a two-year research survey] as "extremely biased" and based on misleading information."

The report by the CSIRO and the Centre for Low Emission Technology on public perceptions of, and support for, low greenhouse gas emission technologies states it is "one of the most detailed research projects undertaken into public perceptions of new power generation technologies" [our emphasis]

The report was prepared by the CSIRO's division of exploration and mining for the NSW Minerals Council and the Australian Coal Association.

And Ms Beeby reports, "...while about 89 per cent of survey participants preferred solar power, after being informed of 'some of the problems associated with generating and storing solar, they were willing to consider a range of alternatives', including nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage."

Australian Greens climate change spokeswoman, Senator Christine Milne told Ms Beeby, "[The report is] an absolutely low point in the history of CSIRO. I find it quite shocking that CSIRO, as a peak science body for which Australians have so much respect, has allowed itself to be caught up in push-polling for the coal industry. This is not research into public opinion it is a strategy designed to manipulate and change public opinion."

The chief executive of the Centre for Low Emission Technology, Dr Kelly Thambimuthu claimed barriers to solar power in Australia included "environmental concerns relating to by-products from manufacture of some photovoltaic cells," and while he agreed that he "could not exactly pin-point" any specific environmental concerns relating to solar cell manufacture said the information "came from a range of experts" and was designed to explain "the pros and cons of a range of renewable technologies".

One the other hand Ms Beeby reports, "Professor Jennings said claims of environmental concerns over by-products from solar cell manufacture did not stand up to scrutiny. During manufacture of silicon cells, a highly flammable gas was used, and some experimental technologies were using thin layers of cadmium. "But it's ridiculous to talk of these as posing environmental risks. These are experimental technologies that are not yet in commercial production, and will not be for some time."