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The Bullroarer - Friday 23rd May 2008
Posted by aeldric on May 23, 2008 - 3:04am in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
The Age - Air fares take off as Qantas reacts to oil prices
QANTAS will raise domestic and international air fares for the second time in less than a month in an attempt to offset soaring world oil and jet fuel prices
Otago Daily Times - No respite as oil prices keep rising
PUMP prices of $2.50 per litre of fuel are on the horizon as global oil prices surge to more than $US130 ($NZ167.30) and the New Zealand dollar further weakens.
New Zealand motorists have barely taken breath from urban and rural prices settling around the $2 per litre mark during the past fortnight before the price of West Texas crude and Brent crude from the North Sea leapt about $US5, to $US134 and $US132 respectively on Wednesday trading.
news.com.au - Fuel excise cut would do little: Rudd
STEEPLY rising petrol prices in recent weeks would have erased the effect of any cut in the fuel excise, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.
The federal Opposition has proposed an excise cut of five cents a litre, which would bring down pump prices by 5.5 cents, to ease cost-of-living pressures on households.
Mr Rudd said a 15 cents a litre movement in petrol prices would have negated any excise cut.
news.com.au - High fuel costs put bite on grocery prices
THE costs of supermarket staples such as fruit and vegetables are tipped to rise sharply as increasing diesel fuel prices hit the trucking industry.
Herald Sun - Chilling warning on oil supply
THE world's leading energy authority warned yesterday that global oil supplies may fall well short of booming demand within the next 20 years.
The Age - Passenger planes on go-slow over fuel
Qantas and Jetstar planes have slowed their flying speed in a bid to beat soaring jet fuel costs.
NZ Herald - Emergency services hit by fuel prices rises
Emergency services say they are feeling the pinch from fuel price rises.
Carbon News NZ - Greens get warm, energy-efficient houses in Budget win
Almost $100 million has been secured in the Budget by the Green Party for measures which includ increasing the energy-efficiency of New Zealand homes, making it the party’s largest-ever Budget package.
Herald Sun - Oil Search to buy into LNG project
OIL Search may exercise pre-emptive rights to buy AGL Energy's 3.6 per cent stake in the $11 billion Papua New Guinea liquefied natural gas joint venture.
AGL plans to sell its stake.
The Australian - Kevin Rudd's energy strategy 'flawed' says Productivity Commission
THE Government's leading economic think tank has launched a scathing attack on one of Kevin Rudd's most significant climate change policies - the mandatory renewable energy target - claiming it will drive up energy prices and do nothing to cut dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.
In a carefully timed submission to the Government's climate change policy review, the Productivity Commission also flagged a review of tax distortions that increase emissions, such as the generous fringe benefit tax treatment of motor vehicles.
Following the recent debate over a possible cut in fuel excises to relieve the cost burden on motorists, the commission has also encouraged the Government to put up fuel prices by including transport fuels in an emissions trading scheme from 2010.
The Age - BP's oil price debunks a bit of a hit and myth
[.....]
BP Australia has decided to debunk a few "myths" about the price of a litre of petrol in Australia. The company should be an expert, of course. The BP conglomerate is the third-largest energy company in the world and one of six petroleum "supermajors".
[.....]
The first myth BP Australia is keen to debunk is that Australia is self-sufficient in oil. It isn't.
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The Productivity Commission's objection to the MRET seems to be based on the view that it edges out gas for electrical generation. My counter argument is 'just look at the UK'. A more sophisticated argument might be that we can afford to build wind and solar now and we might be too broke to do that when gas supplies are low. Not having the Commission's report I don't know if they have done any crystal ball gazing about ammonia/urea production, CNG as a heavy vehicle fuel or diesel substitute, GTL petrol and avgas, gas fired CHP in cities and more use of gas peak power to balance wind and solar. In other words there are much better things to do with gas than centralised baseload generation.
I thought it was bizarre.
1. They want to include gas and 'clean" coal as renewables - which they aren't even if they are cleaner than regular dirty coal
2. The proposed carbon trading system should make gas and "clean" coal competitive with coal - if they don't the market isn't working
The obsession with using gas for everything will come back to bite us in the long run.
A few more stories via Energy Bulletin:
Crikey - Time for the price of fuel to rise above politics
Adelaide Now - No silver bullet for fuel prices: Rudd
SMH - How petrol is putting Sydney under the pump
You didnt watch Catalyst last night then?
UK Microgen, also posted at EB along with story about green cement using fly ash and slag.
Crikey - I have more content than I know what to do with - some makes it through, other bits just get dropped or put into suspended animation for a longer post, much, much later....
I may do a "green cement" post one day.
An outfit like ABARE needs to do a report along the lines of 'Energy paths for Australia til 2040 under different carbon scenarios'. To make it easier they don't have guess future oil, gas and coal prices only the percentage of the mix. Factors they'd need to include are fuel switching, energy terms of trade (esp. coal out minus oil in), likely changes in a carbon cap and industry by industry needs. Every year compare predicted changes with actual. Taxpayers are currently funding different guvmint departments to contradict each other eg this mob favours gas, whoever absorbed the Greenhouse Office favours renewables (not for battlers tho) and Ferguson's mob clearly loves coal. Perhaps they should speak with one voice.
One more from the Greens' Christine Milne:
Five things Mr Rudd can do today to reduce oil price impact
One more item - ASPO Australia's Ian Dunlop will be interviewed on the following radio program on Sunday at 8pm :
http://www.theopenhouse.net.au/
See here for a local station:
http://www.theopenhouse.net.au/find-station.html
A few from the Courier Mail via Stuart in Brisbane :
Classic cartoon - Brisbane Transport Options
MPs dodge petrol pain
Aussie petrol's cheap - Shell
Bligh pledges $2m to get public servants cycling
Petrol smashes $1.50 mark
Northern Link's tunnel torment
Oil prices to test $US200
One from the ABC on (regular) geothermal power in Victoria :
We may be the lucky country but are we smart?
From the BBC website
Medvedev is ex chairman of Gazprom who now have Europe by the short & curlies and Hu of course signed the $55bn natural gas deal with Australia. Last time the Russians were in town Medvedev was with the CEO of their enrichment firm OAO Basic Element since neither Russia nor China has that much uranium. The deal is we sell it cheap and if we want a little back we pay top yuan for it. We're babes in the woods on the international energy scene. Marn will sort it out.
I tell you what I'm getting a bit heady with all the stories out there about Peak Oil now. Is this it, is it really happening? There was a big part of me that was hoping that my own beliefs and the extreme logic that TOD and other sites have was all crap and that everything was going to be fine.
Is it time to start filling up the Jerry Cans now? Are our goverments going to wake up and start preparation? Are we to be left to our own devices? I need some guidance Oh Wise TODers.
I'm more worried about changes to rainfall patterns than the oil price. Something seriously weird is going on with the climate.
Turnpike,
The awakening mainstream media recognition is all that's actually new. (Even then, most punters still turn to the Sports pages and have no idea what PO is. They're also conditioned to believe whatever vested interest wants to tell them that oil is due to go back below $40 per barrel "real soon now". - Phew, what a relief! - Back to the State of Origin...)
If you think conventional oil really peaked in 2005 (and why visit TOD if you don't!) then the good news is that the pace of PO impact on the economy is "gradual". The doomers are predicting far too rapid a collapse. Think about it - oil peaked in 2005 and only a few people are paying attention to the correct message even now in mid-2008.
However, this is not the sort of problem that can be solved by filling a few jerry cans.
We have to match world demand to supply as it declines, without starting a resource war and without pushing the greenhouse gases past tipping point. (Or should I say, pushing them back below tipping point, if NASA's Hansen is right and 350ppm CO2 is too high for the long term!)
But why not be optimistic. Look at the massive organisation that occurred in World War 2, which is probably the last comparable global crisis. (BTW, it was a "resource war".)
What did everyone do then? They got organised, they stopped wastage, they rationed fuel, they rode the bus, or they drove a bus - they helped each other. They didn't panic and they "never surrendered".
So the best thing you can fill is actually your neighbour's ear - with a calm and understandable explanation of what's going on and where things are going, and a serious suggestion that as a society, now is the time for everyone to get organised.
Look at all the wastage in our society - what an appalling model to pass on to the Chinese. Let's fix it now.
Thanks Cretaceous, I really am an optimistic person and I have great faith in human nature as a whole. Unfortunately in 2008 and beyond we are starting from such a higher material base, people simply have a lot more to loose. I look around my suburban life and see that nobody even knows their neighbour.
After listening to my grandparents and other older folks over the years you get to know that pre-war times were a lot simpler in terms of what one could expect from their lives. People new their neighbours, walked to where they wanted to go, grew food locally. These days we are spoon fed virtually every thing we need and want, personal effort has very place these days. The vast majority of people I see around me are so ingrained in 'the system' I find it hard to believe they could even pick up a spade to dig a hole for a tomato plant.
I know I'm sounding a bit Kunstlerish with this kind of talk but I really am getting concerned for the future of myself and my family. I'm in limbo land between the maroading hordes theory and the love thy neighbour camps. I guess what I'm looking for is some guidance, I'm just not smart enough to be able to process all the information flying around now. I hope that governments start showing that guidance, and soon!
P.S. The Jerry cans were just a cue for my greater concerns.
Saw this in the SMH today which had me laughing out loud:
20 weeks of the most spectacular run up of oil prices in history, and finally they get it?!
Thats a contrarian indicator if ever I saw one - sell !!!!!!
:-)