The Bullroarer - Friday 14 March 2008

News.com.au - Treasurer Wayne Swan plugs income tax cuts over petrol tax break

THE Federal Government will not scrap tax on petrol just to ease the pricing pain on consumers, Treasurer Wayne Swan said today.

Energy Bulletin - Highway of diamonds
This is not an Australian newspaper, but it is an article about an Australian Minister - the Honourable Andrew McNamara, Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation (Qld) who is saying some interesting things:

I suggest that we face an even graver threat, that is even more imminent than global warming, and in response to which we have chosen to look the other way for 50 years.

The hidden dragon I speak of is resource depletion; of the peaking supply of those sources of energy that have enabled our explosion from around 2 billion people on the planet in 1900 to 6.5 billion today

Radio NZ - New energy source 'like money in the bank'

An energy conference in Auckland has been told that technology to extract methane for industry from gigantic bubbles deep in the ocean is only a few years away.

The bubbles, known as gas hydrates, contain methane frozen solid by immense pressure and severe cold, thousands of metres deep in the ocean.

Many countries are investigating gas hydrates, and GNS science says the quantities identified in New Zealand's oceans are up to four times larger than the biggest gas field, Maui.

News.com.au - Rudd says economy still strong

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd says the economy and financial sector remain strong, but the global events of recent months show the country is not immune to the turbulence of financial markets.

Goldcoast.com.au - State Puts Brakes on Petrol Bikes
Qld doesn't like the fuel-miser pushbikes.

The move has outraged the bike industry
[....]
Others remain unaware of the change and continue to ride their motorised bicycles.

SMH - Soft NZ Jan retail sales slow NZ economy

Soft retail sales are the latest piece of data revealing slowing in the domestic economy.

January's retail sales rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 per cent - as expected and following a 0.1 per cent rise in December - largely due to a 2.1 per cent increase in supermarket and grocery store sales.

[.....]
The current rate of increase in the total retail sales trend had been bolstered by the strong rise in fuel prices. If fuel prices were excluded, the trend would be rising at a slower pace, Statistics NZ said.

The Age - Asian consortium buy stake in RMA Energy

Singapore's Bounty Resources International Ltd and its Chinese consortium have agreed to acquire up to 70 per cent of two of RMA Energy Ltd's tin and base metal assets in northern Queensland for $40 million.

The Age - Green Energy Surges

Investments in solar power, wind energy, bio-fuels, and fuel cells surged 40% last year to $US77.3 billion ($83.6 billion) and will more than triple in the next decade, according to industry group Clean Edge.

News.com.au - Energy demand fuels mineral export earnings

STRONG demand for the country's energy commodities helped to maintain the country's mineral export earnings in the December quarter despite a rising Australian dollar, the government's commodities agency says.

[.......]

Crude oil recorded the largest absolute quarter-on-quarter increase in export earnings, rising $305 million or 14 per cent to $2.539 billion in the December quarter, resulting from both higher export volumes and prices.

Travel Blackboard - Airborne oil prices could lead to plummeting airline demand

It is questionable whether the airline industry can continue to elude the negative consequences that should flow from rising fuel prices.

The focus of the media has been upon banking sector concerns as credit continues to ebb.

However, as inflated oil prices hit an all time high above USD108 yesterday, airline costs are likely to be effected, whilst credit supply impacts demand.

Scoop.co.nz - NZ Biofuel Manufacturers Association Formed

Major players in New Zealand’s fledgling biofuel manufacturing sector believe there are severe risks to its viability.

Seven of the companies that plan to supply New Zealand with biodiesel or ethanol have formed the New Zealand Biofuel Manufacturers Association (NZBMA) so that it can raise the issues confronting the sector with a united voice.

That article about methane hydrates is bizarre.

Has anyone seen a real world example of these being harvested and used yet ?

So far its still in the realm of science fiction from what I can tell...

"technology to extract methane for industry from gigantic bubbles deep in the ocean is only a few years away."

And fusion power is only thirty years away, too. And the air car will revolutionise personal transport, once it's built. And the next generation nuclear reactors will be clean and safe and impossible to use to get bomb material. And the US plans to put men on Mars.

There's some stuff that's always going to be just a few years away.

I wonder if, when referring to "bubbles", they mean pingos... remember them?
Methane now bubbling from Beaufort Sea
Anomalies caused by ancient event

Updated
A search of the GNS website referred to in the link has some information on the gas hydrate research

What are gas hydrates? <= nice structure and phase diagrams

Energy resource

Useful links

I remember the PLF's - Wayne Madsen turned them into a tinfoil horror story back when that news item came out :-)

I like the NZ diagrams.

I'll just add the link to the USGS stability diagram as it is even clearer.

It's a good thing that these formations are deep and that water has a high heat capacity.... It'll probably take a long time for surface heat to penetrate to that depth... especially if/as(?) the oceans stratify...

So far its still in the realm of science fiction from what I can tell...

And the consequences if it goes wrong would be part way between science fiction and horror.

Well - from a global warming point of view it would be disastrous even if it went "right" - the volume of hydrocarbons in the hydrates dwarfs that of other fossil fuels.

http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2008/01/warning-signs-on-ocean-floor.html

O yea of little faith... how could poking a 1000m long stick at a potentially unstable geochemical formation under the sea possibly go wrong?!

;-)

I put the Queensland decision re fuel miser bikes into the following category of thinking.
The rule is simple: be careful what you measure

IE Lets not save fuel (or the planet) becuase that bike might exceed 200 W, 200 W ! Good God...