The Bullroarer - Sunday 20 July 2008

SMH - Climate won't wait, Mr Rudd

THE first of Nelson Mandela's eight lessons of leadership is that "Courage is not the absence of fear - it's inspiring others to move beyond it". If ever our planet needed inspiring leadership it is now, as we face the twin threats of climate change and peak oil. Our leaders need the courage to take the bold, far-sighted action we need if we are to survive this challenge and emerge better off. In perhaps as little as two decades we have to radically transform our society and economy.

We have to rebuild our energy infrastructure with zero emissions renewable energy; upgrade homes, offices and factories to get the same or more output using half as much energy; redesign cities around fast, convenient mass transit and cycleways; and retrain all those workers and communities who currently rely on coal, oil and native forest logging.

Stock Journal - The future of fuel is wide open

The only certainty to emerge from the Future Fuels Forum last month is that we are in a time of transition regarding fuel: just how that transition occurs, and where it takes us, is anyone's guess. The 44-page document that was produced from the forum, and released last week to headlines that shouted '$8 a litre by 2018', gave equal weight to two opposing concepts—peak oil, and energy agency forecasts that current high oil prices are temporary.

Peak oil, the idea that the quantity of cost-effective oil available to global economies is peaking and will begin to decline, has long been regarded by mainstream oil scientists as an idea with little traction. But Paul Graham, leader of CSIRO's Energy Futures project, said that a strong message to come out of the forum is that peak oil should be taken seriously.

Courier Mail - Our greenhouse must be in order with energy sources

THE discovery of what could be one of the world's largest geothermal sites in northwest Queensland is exciting news. Free of greenhouse gas emissions, geothermal – or hot rocks technology – is set to become one of the country's most important energy sources as the search for alternatives to fossil fuels intensifies in the race to beat climate change. According to a CSIRO assessment, Queensland is blessed with such alternatives: geothermal, solar and wind. Each could provide enough electricity to meet all of the state's current power consumption. ...

The renewables "gold rush" is under way around the globe and the shift away from fossil fuels to sustainable alternatives will only accelerate. In that new world, proposals like that for a shale oil mine and processing operation in the ecological jewel of the Whitsundays are an anachronism and should be ruled out as quickly as possible


Courier Mail - Major clean energy discovery in north-west Queensland

GEOLOGISTS have discovered a massive underground basin of "hot rocks" that could provide clean energy to a quarter of Queensland, Premier Anna Bligh says. A government-funded exploration program has uncovered the Millungera Basin, a 15,000 square kilometre area about 100 kilometres east of Cloncurry in Queensland's north-west. The underground resource could hold geothermal energy potentially to rival that of the Copper Basin in South Australia, Ms Bligh said, as well as a significant amount of low emission coal seam gas.

The Age - Code red: Climate skating on thin ice, authors say

CLIMATE watchers yesterday warned that the Government's carbon pollution reduction plan had so many exemptions it was unlikely to lead to a cut in greenhouse emissions before 2020. A book launched in Melbourne last night, Climate Code Red, argues that the climate change challenge is far worse than officially acknowledged by the Government or modelling undertaken by Government adviser Professor Ross Garnaut.

The Age - Governments start planning to save drinking water

Governments have begun work on how they can prevent drinking water in the Murray-Darling Basin from running out. Federal and state governments today issued a joint report written by senior officials about the state of the southern part of the drought-ravaged basin.

The report contains not a shred of good news for the basin. The "water availability outlook" is serious, and has deteriorated since March. Water remains at record low levels. The forecast is for more dry weather. The situation has never been worse at the mouth of the basin - South Australia's lower lakes.

The Australian - Shell sees no problem in dealing with concerns over coal seam gas

FOREIGN investors appetite for investments in coal seam gas and Australian companies with exposure to the new energy product shows no signs of slowing. Royal Dutch Shell's global head of power and gas, Linda Cook yesterday said the super major was still looking for new CSG openings in Australia to add to its recently added stake in Arrow Energy. "We've had that (CSG) on our radar for some years," Ms Cook said during a visit to Australia.

The Australian - Shell urges Rudd to protect LNG

THE world's largest producer of liquefied natural gas has called on the federal Government to extend to the Australian LNG industry protection from carbon price hikes offered to the steel, aluminium and cement industries under its new emissions trading scheme. ...

Don Voelte, chief executive of Woodside, in which Shell has a 34 per cent stake, said this week the company's Browse LNG development was under threat from the new carbon trading scheme's lack of protection.

Ms Cook said it was "too early to tell" what impact the scheme would have on Shell's Prelude project, a 3.5 million tonnes a year floating LNG plant to process gas from the Prelude field, about 450km northeast of Broome. "For Prelude, the one thing that is good for us is that we are in the early stage of concept selection for that project, so at least now we are starting to get some clear idea around what the implication of any legislation may be on that development, so we can factor that in from the beginning," she said.

The Australian - Gutnick phosphate operation to fertilise Indian economy

FORMER diamond tsar Joe Gutnick has teamed up with India's largest fertiliser supplier and investment icon George Soros in a proposed phosphate operation in northwest Queensland. Under a deal announced yesterday in Brisbane, the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative, or IFFCO, will inject slightly over $100 million into Mr Gutnick's plan to ship phosphate from the company's four holdings around Mt Isa. Reserves total a billion tonnes.

The Australian - Deal signals BHP confidence in energy

BHP Billiton's decision to outlay a premium price for an undeveloped coal asset in Queensland's prolific Bowen Basin has been interpreted as a sign of the mining giant's mounting confidence in the outlook for the sector. It is believed that as many as 60 parties initially showed interest in either buying or financing New Hope Corporation's New Saraji project, which BHP and alliance partner Mitsubishi plan to acquire for $US2.40 billion ($2.46 billion). While some analysts described the price tag as expensive, industry observers agreed that it further demonstrated the feverish demand for a diminishing supply of high-quality coal assets in the region.

SMH - 2000 Qantas jobs could be axed

Qantas is set to axe up to 2,000 jobs worldwide as the record price of oil hits world airlines hard.

NZ Herald - On the biofuel bandwagon

An April World Bank report leaked this month argues that the drive for biofuels by American and European governments has pushed up food prices by as much as 75 per cent since 2002, as land used for growing food has been diverted to biofuel crops. So why is the New Zealand Government backing biofuels through the Biofuel Bill? (The Government wants oil companies to start meeting biofuel targets from October.)

Labour and the Greens are convinced New Zealand can do biofuels sustainably without displacing food crops. Not all biofuels are created equal, they point out. Our budding bioethanol and biodiesel industry uses waste products or used cooking oil, or non-food plants like algae and rapeseed grown on land being rested between food crops. On the horizon are so-called second generation biofuels, which don't have the current batch's destructive side-effects. And the new law would set the sustainability bar pretty high.

Bloomberg - Australia Has Decade of Oil Left at Current Rates

Australia's oil resources may last a decade at current production rates, making supply security a ``major concern,'' said energy minister Martin Ferguson. Australia will review all oil and gas leases granted to explorers for their ``commerciality,'' Ferguson said today at a conference in Darwin. Oil and gas field permit holders must work the fields if they can be profitably developed, he said. ...

The government will review oil and gas exploration permits by the end of the year, Ferguson said. Companies that hold leases and haven't developed them will be given 12 months to prove the areas aren't viable. Eni SpA, Italy's largest oil company, plans to start production from its Blacktip gas field in early 2009, Paul Henderson, chief minister of Australia's Northern Territory, said at the conference. The project will cost almost A$1 billion ($975 million). Australian energy production growth will be led by liquefied natural gas, with exports of the fuel set to jump by more than 7 percent a year through 2030, the government's commodities forecaster said in December.

frogblog - Get ready for the last oil war

In those two paragraphs are the crux of the issue, at least as far as the Iranian crisis goes. It was a perfectly rational economic decision for Iran to want to develop nuclear capabilities in order to offset the looming decline in the country’s ability to power itself. Such development takes decades. On the other hand, we all know that there is no actual difference between civil and military nuclear development. There is no economic justification for civilian nuclear unless a military justification is factored in. Nuclear is just too expensive and too risky, unless you weigh the economic costs of military risks, which then offset any purely ‘civilian’ nuclear economic losses. (That is why nuclear will never be a rational economic choice for New Zealand)

Courier Mail - Ducks die in Sunshine Coast toxic lakes, locals say

THEY'RE the Sunshine Coast's multimillion-dollar eyesores. Foul man-made lakes have dangerously high nutrient levels and toxic algae that is killing wildlife - 30 ducks in a day, local people say.

Peak Energy - The Energy Reality We Face

Peak Energy - First Commercial Tidal Power Generation In The UK

Peak Energy - Biomass Power In Austria

Peak Energy - Faith Based Nuclear Waste Storage

Peak Energy - The Tide Is Turning, Part 2

One more, from Stuart in Brisbane:

Courier Mail - Dispute looms over Whitsunday oil plan

A PROPOSED $14 billion shale oil mining operation in the Whitsundays is shaping up to be one of Queensland's biggest environmental battles. The company behind the project says it would produce millions of barrels of oil a year, helping to secure Australia's diesel fuel needs for decades and creating thousands of jobs for the region.

But conservationists say it risks causing devastating environmental damage in a key tourism area just kilometres from some of the country's most prized natural assets. "This is an incredibly dirty industry on the edge of the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. Why anyone would suggest that's a good idea is beyond me," said Suzette Pelt of the local Save Our Foreshore group, which is behind a protest day in Airlie Beach today .

Who would of thought it?The "Curious Snail" is actually running a few sensible articles/leaders on environmental matters.Is Rupert getting greener?

The shale oil proposal in the Proserpine area is a rerun of the Rundle fiasco a few years ago but this time there will be more pressure to push it to a commercial operation because of the energy crisis.It is predictable that McNamara would be non committal on it.This bloke is also the minister responsible for the EPA which translates into the Agency for Protecting the government's Arse.
Ditto for the lukewarm response to the the geothermal prospect in the NW.Anything that doesn't fit the Sacred Coal paradigm is anathema to these retards.

The proposal to export phosphate from the NW QLD deposits is just another symptom of the resources boom disease.As the ancient Australian soils are chronically phosphate deficient this really makes sense?

The Murray-Darling basin is a sad story.Due to past greed/ignorance/short sightedness there is far too much water being taken out of the system,either from dams or from pumping to off stream storage.
The rivers aren't allowed to flood and this destroys the natural flood plain system.If we want to preserve and restore the rivers we have to drasticly reduce the amount of water being drawn out of them at any time,flood or drought.
The only way that this will happen is if the government/s buy back licences.This will cause a lot of the industries currently dependent on the rivers to fold.Some of the high return relative to water input growers may be able to survive.This is the price and the sooner those involved realize it the better.
The alternative is to continue to regard the rivers as irrigation drains and write off the natural ecosystem totally.I suspect that a lot of the man made system will accompany it.

Marn has given us the new word 'commerciality' to join the political lexicon along with Downer's 'inappropriate modalities'. However his economic philosophy comes straight from a movie 'get the money, get the money, get the money'.

One the one hand we have dead ducks, sacked airline staff and dried up rivers; on the other it's flog as much coal, gas and phosphate overseas as quickly as possible. Maybe it has something to do with commerciality.

Maybe its a euphemism for "short termism".

The lack of vision remains staggering - though perhaps the vision is "make as much money as we can before the rest of the world stops buying".

It would be interesting to run some scenarios around what would happen to our balance of payments if Gore's plan miraculously was implemented fully - the US no longer an importer of any form of energy, and cheap renewable energy technology available on a massive scale to the next round of buyers once US build out is complete.

Maybe Marn's got the fear that our economy will be all washed up in a decade from now - and we need to stock up on as many plasma TVs and foreign cars as we can now while the going is good.

Doesn't help the ducks of course...

More thoughts

coal exports - Aussie coal exports generate about 600 Mt a year of CO2 yet domestic emissions for 2006 were 565 Mt (after the mysterious land use revision). Don't exports kinda render the ETS pointless?

grand plans a la Gore - I think the public liked them back in the days of the US moonshot and building the Snowy River Scheme, but the Iraq debacle has cruelled that vision. Therefore whatever happens from now will be piecemeal or bottom up not top down.

I believe in the US both Gore and Pickens see gas as a load leveller for renewables. Our Marn is hellbent on ensuring local gas is all sold before we will even have a significant renewables industry.

Gore is pushing for 100% renewables - Pickens wants to expand wind dramatically, but also wants to expand gas use, especially for transport. There is a big difference between the 2 plans.

Remember our gas will last over 40 years even under fairly aggressive expansions of use for LNG, power and transport (see the scenarios I did recently - and they didn't include gas from coal seams or shale), so I think its doubtful that Marn could sell it all before we run out - we could (theoretically) shift to 100% renewables after he's no longer in government and still have a decade or 2 to spare.