Sydney must prepare now for peak oil
March 17, 2008 - 5:17PM
The Age

And the SMH?

Just had a look at the SMH website and there doesn't seem to be any headline links to this story clearly displayed. The only way I could see it was through The Oil Drum link. If you type peak oil into Google, The Age article comes up first but no mention of the SMH version. Could this be a censorship of "Underbelly" proportions? Perhaps someone needs to paint a big banner and fly it off a bridge or something. Maybe then Peak Oil will get a small voice in the media, if only through default.

The SMH has not printed the story today's edition. At least they've got a story about the Pope's Captain Cook Cruise, I'll say a prayer for us all.

The article on the SMH website has a response from the Premiers office which typically shows governments complete ignorance of the issue.

"The NSW government has a comprehensive Urban Transport Statement - a package of new and accelerated initiatives to address Sydney's present and future transport needs," she said in a statement.

"The (transport) statement is an action plan that responds to the growing transport challenges in Sydney as our population of 4.1 million is forecast to grow to more than five million within 20 years."

It addresses the State Plan's key priorities of easing traffic congestion and increasing public transport use, the spokeswoman said.

Easing traffic congestion is eminently achievable - most of the five million won't be able to afford to drive anyway. It does seem irresponsible to allow Sydney to grow to 5 million rather than encourage that growth to occur in smaller regional centres, linked by high speed commuter and goods trains. Quality of life would improve for all New South Welsh and we could drastically reduce the fuel burn spent in traffic jams in Sydney.

The press release also mentions an increasing fuel tax which ramps up over time. We used to have this in the form of indexation of the fuel excise which John Howard scrapped after the political heat that was drawn after the introduction of the GST. I can't see any government that would be willing to spend it's political capital to reintroduce such a thing. Can you imagine Andrew Bolts reaction. He'd just about choke on his own froth at the mere suggestion of it. And Senator Steve Fielding actually wants to go the other way by dropping 10c a litre off the excise (probably more now that prices have spiked again this week)!

BTW did anyone see this week that the Rudd governemnt is looking at ways to increase the birthrate? Supported of course by the opposition. The usual suspects were trotted out being more childcare options, better maternity leave, bigger baby bonus etc. Uhh hello... Sydney's already got problems! We don't need anymore people thanks. They can't afford homes anyway and they won't want to be slaves to ageing baby boomers. Anyway go talk to Julia first and leave us alone!

On any issue that speaks to near or intermediate term planning...be that a Transport strategy, Infrastructure or Urban Release....there is a need by oilers or fellow travelers like the Greens to establish and understand the underlying assumptions that inform that strategy.

As oilers we can contribute most by understanding the assumptions that underly a given strategy and where we find and correcting those assumptions where they don't make sense. So if a strategy says that private vehicle passenger miles will triple by 2050, what are the assumptions that underly that planning assumption. Now there would not be an oiler on the planet who could believe that a tripling will happen.....so that's the challenge for us....understand the assumptions and if those assumptions are wrong then that's what we focus on informing on.

And that is what the Greens should be focused on right now....What are the assumptions that inform the strategies that government are pursuing....and holding the government "feet to the fire" to really focus on why the government says "1,000,000" people - 500,000 new jobs"....just where is all this coming from ?? Thats really what we should be focused on.

This is yet another TOD post on a useless techno-fix. When is TOD going to face up to Peak Oil and examine contingency planning and how to save lives in the Peak Oil crisis that is coming soon? Banana Power and Poo Power are not going to save lives. How much oil, natural gas, and coal is going to be used in mining metals, developing, manufacturing, transporting, and maintaining these bio-technic fixes, and what food will NOT be grown in wasting good natural fertilizer (bananas and poo)? Everyone who works in the thousands of jobs in mining metals, developing, manufacturing, transporting, and maintaining these bio-technic fixes will be use gasoline to drive to work, and all of the factories will use electricity and many will use oil or natural gas for heating. And pipelines (which consume oil, natural gas, or oil in their manufacture and transportation) or diesel consuming trucks will be used to transport the gas made from bananas and poo.