The Age: Heavy polluters on emission front line

MEASURES to help households and businesses adjust to a low-emissions economy will be part of a sweeping carbon pollution reduction scheme in the Federal Government's green paper to be released in two days.

The paper will present what the Government calls a whole-of-economy-approach to cutting emissions. The Government, concerned about the political danger as people become aware of how fighting climate change will hit them, will try to reassure working families worried about higher petrol and energy costs, including by promising adjustment help.

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.

Canberra Times: New suburbs 'wrong' for light rail

The ACT Government says affordable housing is driving the need for greenfield sites at Gungahlin and Molonglo. Others believe higher residential densities in town centres will provide affordable housing and essential critical mass for light rail, while safeguarding schools, libraries and other services against closures.

The Australian Institute of Architects ACT Chapter backs the Government's new push for a $1billion light-rail system. But chapter president David Flannery said, ''It would be wrong for the Government to continue to release land at the edges of Canberra and expect a light-rail system serving Civic, the airport and town centres to work.

WA Today: Servos fuel price suspicion over petrol prices

Cynicism is rife in my business. So when it was reported to me that petrol stations had been caught red handed withholding fuel when prices were at their weekly cheapest I was sceptical.

SMH: Smart meters cut power use

AN AGGRESSIVE introduction of smart meters in homes could cut electricity use by as much as 25 per cent during peak demand periods, removing the need to build new power stations for several decades.

GreenLeft: Students of Sustainability

Australia is a leading exporter of coal, shipping millions of tonnes every year around the globe. It was appropriate, therefore, that the annual environmental conference, Students of Sustainability (SoS), was this year held in the world’s coal export capital: Newcastle. Since 1991, SoS has been held in different cities across Australia to facilitate discussion between, and activism of, radical students and young people dedicated to saving our environment.

Some of the topics covered were as simple as composting; what makes good bush tucker and how to dumpster dive. But the big issues of changing society and saving the planet were also tackled, with climate change, peak oil and Aboriginal rights being big talking points.

I love a good piece of extrapolation - time to get out your exponential growth calculators folks. Oh, sorry, did somebody mention peak oil?
ABC: Freight emissions set to double by 2020: report

New figures reveal carbon emissions from the freight transport sector in Australia are set to increase by 100 per cent by 2020.

WA Today: Public transport not prepared for more passengers: Report

The capacity of bus and train services are not prepared to cope with rising passenger numbers, a spokesman from the Australian Association for the Study of Peak oil has said. Convenor for AASPO Bruce Robinson said that motorists should prepare their own fuel shortage plan in the wake of a CSIRO report that petrol may reach up to eight dollars a litre by 2018.

Mr Robinson said the most obvious way to reduce petrol use was for people to walk to closer destinations or use public transport. However, Mr Robinson said the current capacity of bus and train services will buckle under pressure as people turn to public transport as their means of getting by. "If a quarter of people in Perth travel by car and there is a fuel shortage, there will be six times as many people at bus stops," Mr Robinson said. "There are not enough buses to cope."

Scoop NZ: Get into gear to improve Public Transport: Greens

Reports from around New Zealand of overcrowding on buses and trains is evidence of a creaking and groaning public transport system that desperately needs to pick up the pace, Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman says.

Not only are many passengers forced to stand up during long commuter trips, others are left waiting forlornly at bus stops as buses packed to capacity can't even stop to pick them up. "There's building evidence of overcrowding on public transport across the country at a time when we've got a real opportunity to encourage people on to buses, trains and ferries."

Herald Sun: Nuclear power push comes as report attacks Aussie energy efficiency

AUSTRALIA'S wasteful use of energy has come under the spotlight as Kevin Rudd faces a new push to accept nuclear power.

...

Mr Howes said he was sick of hearing claims that workers in heavy-polluting industries, such as steel and aluminium, could be re-trained in "green" industries. "Frankly that is just bulls...," he said. Instead, workers could be "left on the scrapheap of history" and enter the ranks of the long-term unemployed.

"These guys aren't going to be automatically re-employed as eco-tourism operators," Mr Howes said.

Funniest thing I've heard in awhile. Not much chance of being re-employed in the tourism industry, but they'd know more about that than they would about nuclear engineering. But I bet they could manufacture nice steel structures for a Concentrating Solar Power plant. Talk about a lack of imagination..

The Age: SmartBus plan 'will not work in current form'

MELBOURNE'S $660 million SmartBus service is "seriously underbaked" and will not succeed in getting motorists out of their cars, an influential public transport academic has said. Monash University's chair of public transport, Professor Graham Currie, said the Brumby Government's much-spruiked SmartBus plan must be rethought if it was to succeed. "SmartBus is seriously underbaked by world bus rapid transit system standards," Professor Currie said.

Science Alert: Electric cars ARE the future

This situation favours the all-electric car, particularly if more efficient and lighter batteries can be mass-produced. Battery farms and wall plugs should also be provided in public places. These are not insurmountable problems at all. What is required is the political will to back such a major technological as well as cultural transformation. Fast public decision-making and leading by example are the prerequisites for success.

Sure, the batteries may not be entirely pollution free and more electricity would have to be produced, naturally by sustainable means. Such a massive fuel revolution will require government intervention and leadership on a grand scale. The North Sydney Council has announced one shining example just a few days ago. It is "on-track" to be the first in Australia to install plug-in stations, to meet the expected uptake of hybrid cars (North Shore Times, June 20, 2008)

TVNZ: Road user charges in discussion

Road Transport Forum bosses and Transport Minister Annette King are expected to meet to discuss road user charges on Monday. The meeting follows the recent nationwide protests by truck drivers after a sudden increase in road user charges.

NZ Herald: Fuel and food big push on inflation

A 12 per cent jump in petrol prices over the June quarter is thought to have pushed the annual inflation rate to 3.8 per cent, its highest for seven and a-half years. Market economists and the Reserve Bank are picking a rise of 1.4 per cent in the June consumers price index, due out tomorrow, with about half of it coming from higher petrol prices.