The Economist has an article on Matt Simmons. The most surprising part (other than Matt's retreat to a doomstead in Maine) is them quoting him saying "globalisation must stop". Isn't that considered the ultimate heresy in St James ?

The Economist also recently had a special issue covering energy issues - The power and the glory - which had a look at a range of alternative energy options. Other articles in the section cover most of the way forward (ocean power, biogas and cradle to cradle manufacturing being the most notable exceptions, while "negawatts" were deliberately omitted).

The Australian - Chevron plans $20.8bn gas project

US energy giant Chevron is planning a second massive liquefied natural gas export operation off Western Australia's northwest coast. The proposed project could cost $US20billion ($20.8 billion) and compare to the massive Gorgon and Browse plans.

Chevron, which runs the Gorgon project, said yesterday it had tripled the scale of its planned Wheatstone LNG operation after discovering more gas at its Iago field, 130km offshore. The company is now looking at combining the Wheatstone field and nearby Iago into an LNG project with an initial capacity of 15 million tonnes a year, the same size as Gorgon, which analysts expect to cost as much as $US30 billion.

The Age - BG chief talks down gas price increases

BG GROUP chief executive Frank Chapman has rejected the prospect of large rises in the price of gas in eastern Australia while launching his company's $13.7 billion bid for Origin Energy, which has yet to attract widespread support. After the release of BG's Bidder's Statement, Mr Chapman said the abundance of gas resources in eastern Australia, with some estimates of 250 trillion cubic feet of potential resources, meant the domestic market would be fully supplied at a low price.

"The notion LNG pricing will net back into domestic pricing is economically not rational in my view," he said, contradicting assumptions in the Garnaut review on carbon trading released last week. On the spot market, LNG is selling for about five times the price of domestic gas in eastern Australia, making it an attractive market for coal seam gas producers.

Business Spectator - AGL invests $37m in Coal Seam Gas project

Gas and electricity supplier AGL Energy Limited has invested $37 million in a coal seam gas production pilot and exploration and appraisal program with Beaconsfield Energy Development and Capricorn Energy, in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

SMH - A gas for investors

Coal-seam gas is the sexy new energy source, despite the fact that its conversion into LNG has not been commercially tested. Meanwhile shareholders in companies with coal-seam gas reserves like Santos and Origin are in clover. Whether Origin secures a juicy joint-venture deal or accepts a sweetened offer by BG, they will receive a return on their investment that they would not have dreamt of six months ago.

SMH - Greed and bad management pay no heed

In these straitened times of dying rivers and global warming you should know how little you're getting for your money, and not only at the bowser. A week ago Kevin Rudd issued a "communique" on behalf of the nine federal, state and territory Labor leaders who govern Australia, agreeing to establish "new governance" of the critical Murray-Darling Basin and its decrepit, degraded river system. Along with $3.7 billion "in principle" for "significant water projects, subject to "due diligence" over the next five years, Rudd also pledged a new "independent, expert" commission.

Goodbye Craik and Sinclair, presumably, in time. Goodbye National Party control of the Murray-Darling.

Two days ago Craik, undaunted, called a press conference to announce the latest state of the "drought" in the Murray-Darling Basin, with its 1.9 million people and its combined catchments in three states of 1 million square kilometres covering one-seventh of the Australian land mass. Her "grim news" - the drought is "getting worse" and June inflows to the river system were "the worst on record". The months ahead look no better.

SMH - Grim outlook for Murray Darling basin as water flows at all-time low

The Australian - Ziffs ready to talk turkey on oil shale

ZIFF Brothers Investments will decide by the end of the year whether to apply for approvals for a multi-billion-dollar oil shale development in Queensland, its Australian unit says.

The Australian - Coal fuels Wesfarmers' hope but Coles turnaround way off

Crikey - Peak Oil Schmoil. Why is no-one talking about Peak Coal?

With Peak Oil on the agenda of the G8, it is easy to miss the other story about the end of fossil fuels: Peak Coal. According to an under-reported German study from last year, global coal production can only grow by about 30% before it peaks and begins to run out, some time around 2025.

Crikey - Nearer my ETS to thee. In your prayers, Kevin.

So between Brendan Nelson and the Greens and India and China at the G8 rejecting taking any action until developed countries get their act together, things don’t look too flash on the climate change front. Perhaps we should adopt the position of right-wing economist Henry Ergas, who reckons reckons that given no one else is doing anything about carbon emissions, the only logical response for Australia is to get as rich as possible in order to better adapt to climate change. You certainly can’t fault Henry’s logic -- there’s something very rigorous about solving the "prisoner’s dilemma" of climate change by burning the gaol down.

All of which leaves ... Malcolm Turnbull, who may be the only hope of getting an emissions trading scheme up at all by 2012. Turnbull as shadow Treasurer has looked at his best when he hasn’t needed to defend the legacy of the Howard Government. On emissions trading, however, he’s defending that legacy, in a space opened up by Brendan Nelson’s reflexive shifting to the Right.

Crikey - Rudd goes missing on international climate policy

Australia was rated equal last among developed countries in a recently published Climate Cooperation Index that compared the cooperative behaviour of countries within the international climate change regime between 1990 and 2005. The Rudd Government has had more than six months to develop its international climate policy, so what has changed?

SMH - Greens to lead on climate change: Brown

Addressing the Australian Greens national Council meeting in Hobart, Senator Brown said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have failed to show mature leadership if Labor sets weak targets for emissions cuts or if it delayed implementation of an emissions trading scheme to 2012. He said the Greens wanted a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2020 and a carbon neutral Australia, or at least 90 per cent reduction, by 2050.

As well, the Greens want massive funding for fast, reliable and cheap public transport in metropolitan and regional Australia. ... The Greens are also calling for feed-in laws, paying a premium to those who feed solar or other renewable energy back into the electricity grid.

SMH - Activists charged over coal protest

Three Sydney-based Greenpeace activists protesting against coal-fired power have been charged by police after spending a cold 34 hours atop a 140m high smokestack west of Brisbane. ... The campaigners were arguing the power station was a major greenhouse polluter and that Queensland urgently needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by going solar.

Peak Energy - Colourful Concentrators: Organic Solar

Technology Review has an article on advanced organic dyes that more efficiently concentrate sunlight, which MIT researchers believe will reduce the cost of producing solar power - A Better Solar Collector.

ABC - Govts urged to boost public transport, not build more roads

Public transport advocates say a recent CSIRO report predicting $8-a-litre petrol prices by 2018 has sent a clear message that Australia must follow Europe's lead and invest in first-class public transport systems.

Dr Paul Mees, a senior transport planning lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne, believes that the prediction should send a warning to Australian governments. "Particularly to state and federal governments that are currently proposing to spend billions of dollars on new freeways and toll ways," he said. "It's not immediately obvious how people are going to be able to afford the fuel for cars to drive on those roads."

Dr Mees says Western Australia has the only Government that is doing a good job investing in public transport., having just doubled the size of the Perth rail network and announcing another five rail lines, including a link to the airport. He says he believes the other states are influenced too strongly by road lobby groups and public-private partnerships.

frogblog - Fuel for thought - the future of transport fuels: challenges and opportunities

Energy Bulletin - Australia report on future of transport fuels

Car Central - Hyundai’s pioneering LPG-hybrid Elantra in contention for Australia

The carmaker has confirmed the hybrid car, which is based on the current Elantra, will go on sale in July of next year, initially in South Korea. It is still investigating what other markets to launch the hybrid vehicle in, but Australia is one of the top contenders due to our extensive LPG infrastructure.

AAP - Uranium contaminates water supply

FRENCH authorities have ordered the temporary closure of a nuclear treatment plant in a popular tourist region of southern France after a uranium leak polluted the local water supply. Site operator Socatri, a subsidiary of French nuclear giant Areva, was ordered to suspend all activities at the Tricastin treatment facility in the Vaucluse region and beef up safety at the plant, according to a statement from the ASN safety authority.

Local residents have been told not to drink water or eat fish from nearby rivers since the leak on Monday night, in which 75kg of untreated liquid uranium spilled into the ground. Swimming and water sports were also forbidden as was irrigation of crops with the contaminated water.

Peak Energy - Seabreacher

DVice has a post on a device which, from a practical point of view, seems to be entirely useless - but is probably a lot of fun if you are happy to waste some fuel - the Seabreacher submarine, which is an interesting example of biomimicry.

Peak Energy - A Surplus Of Clean Energy

Peak Energy - The Most Efficient Power Plants