WA Today - Photos reveal extent of Apache gas explosion

Pictures taken by Apache Energy workers show the full extent of the damage caused by the Varanus Island gas explosion. Apache Energy and the State Government have not said publicly what caused the explosion, which has plunged WA's gas supplies into crisis. The pictures show the extent of the damage on the pipe at the centre of the explosion, which knocked out about 30 per cent of the State's gas supply.

Crikey - Australians buying gas-guzzlers in record numbers

WA Business News - Jabiru secures alternative gas supply

West Perth-based Jabiru Metals Ltd has secured alternative gas supplies to power its Jaguar zinc-copper mine near Leonora up to the end of September. The miner said today that it had been able to revert to 100 per cent gas power generation through alternative arrangements, with the agreement with an unknown gas supplier starting from July 1.

SMH - New gas-fired power station for Victoria

A $640 million natural gas-fired power station will go ahead in western Victoria. Origin Energy announced it would proceed with the project at a site 12km west of Mortlake. The 1000-megawatt plant will be the largest power station built in Victoria since the early 1990s, when the Loy Yang B coal-fired plant was built in the Latrobe Valley. ...

The project comes after the government this week signed off on a $750 million brown coal power station in the Latrobe Valley. The 400 megawatt plant will use "clean coal" technology to produce electricity with 30 per cent less greenhouse emissions than conventional power stations.

The Australian - Origin to reject BG Group's $13.7bn hostile bid

ORIGIN Energy, Australia's second largest power retailer, will recommend shareholders reject BG Group's $13.7 billion takeover bid ... The UK-based company was targeting Origin to secure its vast gas resources in eastern Australia to feed a proposed liquefied natural gas plant in Queensland it plans to develop with Queensland Gas Company.

The Australian - Nations must unite to calm oil market: Indonesia

INDONESIA issued an impassioned plea today for oil powers and consumer nations to stop the blame game over oil prices. ... “This is time for producer countries, not only OPEC and Saudi Arabia but also Russia and Venezuela, to sit together with consumer nations, with the US, China, India, and not to blame each other,” Mr Yudhoyono said in a speech carried on ElShinta radio. “They need to make calculations about to what extent they can step up their production. If it's not possible they have to commit to reduce oil consumption.”

SMH - Uranium tests kept secret, inquiry hears

A MAN whose parents died of cancer after living near a former uranium smelter at Hunters Hill told a parliamentary inquiry yesterday the NSW Department of Health had tried to cover up results of radioactivity tests.

SMH - TV screen gas 'worse than coal'

THE rising demand for flat-screen televisions may have a greater impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power stations, a leading environmental scientist has warned. Manufacturers use a greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride to make the televisions. As the sets have become more popular, annual production of the gas has risen to about 4000 tonnes. As a driver of global warming, nitrogen trifluoride is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, yet no one knows how much of it is being released into the atmosphere by the industry, said Michael Prather, director of the environment institute at the University of California.

Renewable Energy Access - Will Renewables Trump Nuclear in Ontario?

“Here in Ontario, there's a fundamental paradigm shift taking place,” said Kristopher Stevens, Executive Director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA). “You've got the large-scale, centralized thinkers who only see big power stations with tons of electricity, which are hard ramp up and down. And you've got the other side that wants to create a network, like the internet, that is adaptive.”

SMH - Vale, Alexander the not-so-great

Several years ago, with controversy over the invasion of Iraq swirling, Alexander Downer saw a chance to score a point against one of the most credible critics of the government's policy. The then foreign minister was at Melbourne Airport walking towards the gate to catch his flight when he saw, walking ahead of him, Dick Woolcott.

Woolcott was a career diplomat, former secretary of the department of foreign affairs and trade. Although he had retired by the time the Howard government took power, the new government had asked him to perform some delicate diplomatic missions. John Howard made him a special envoy to bringing about a rapprochement with Malaysia's prickly prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, for instance.

But the invasion of Iraq changed all that. Woolcott emerged as a critic. Now seizing the moment in Melbourne Airport, did the foreign minister confront Woolcott? Did he argue the merits of the policy? Did he try to change his mind? Or did he tell him what he thought of him? None of these.

Yelling above the heads of the other travellers, Downer called out to the back of Woolcott's head, "Loser!" he told me later. "Then I ducked down quickly in case he turned around and saw me." In recounting the story, Downer seemed to think it a very funny thing to do.

This was the man who, for nearly a dozen years, represented Australia in the high councils of the world. As this anecdote reveals, Downer can be petty and puerile. He plays a mean-spirited, personal, scratchy game of partisan politics. He can be breathtakingly immature.

SMH - 'Annoy' squad's pre-emptive strike