The Age - Over 70% of NSW now in drought

Drought conditions have worsened in NSW, with more than 70 per cent of the state now officially drought-declared. Figures released by the NSW Department of Primary Industries on Saturday show just 10.8 per cent of the state, mostly on the eastern coastline, has enjoyed normal rainfall, and was rated as "satisfactory" in September.

SMH - The coal conundrum. A semi back-flip on clean coal, though at least he is suggesting the coal companies pay for it.

Tim Flannery's acknowledgement that the world is too far down the path to dump coal as an energy source will surprise many who have followed his warnings on climate change. ...

Coal exports are said to be worth $23 billion annually to Australia's economy. If a surcharge of just 10 per cent was placed on such exports (and who would consider that unreasonable in light of the GST we all pay?), a war chest of $12 billion could be built up in only five years.

If clean coal is to become a reality, this is the sort of money required, and it's morally right that the coal companies, rather than the Australian public, should pay it. Following this, Australia could pool its funds with reliable partners such as the German utility RWE, whose 450-megawatt power plant is scheduled for commissioning in 2014, to really speed progress towards a clean coal solution.

One other aspect of clean coal technology is worth touching on: the reliance on appropriate geological structures to store CO2 underground. Where such structures exist near coal-fired power plants, the cost of clean coal will be much reduced. If, however, we envisage replacing every conventional coal-fired plant on earth with clean coal, things look very different, for the amount of pipeline infrastructure required to do this is staggeringly large.

Indeed, it probably rivals the entire existing pipeline infrastructure deployed by the oil and gas industries. The required pipelines cannot be in place by 2030. Of course, this kind of argument could be applied to any energy technology that requires rapid ramping up, as all face severe bottlenecks of one sort or another. I merely note it here to make the point that clean coal technologies can never be a complete, worldwide replacement for existing coal facilities. Globally, renewable energy will have to take a significant portion of conventional coal's market share.

The Australian - Gorgon moves on with Clough deal

US oil major Chevron has awarded a $300 million contract to Clough and its partners to finalise engineering and design studies for the massive Gorgon liquefied natural gas project offshore from Western Australia.

The Australian - Santos extends into WA gas field

SANTOS has bought a permit in the Spar gas field from the Gorgon Project joint venture participants for an undisclosed sum. The WA-4-R permit contains the majority of the undeveloped Spar gas field offshore in Western Australia, estimated to contain a gas resource of up to 600 petajoules with associated condensate of up to 8 million barrels, Santos said.

ABC - Government invests in clean coal technology

The Federal Government will pour millions of dollars each year into a global institute for carbon capture and storage. The announcement comes after a project in Queensland, which was to use carbon capture, was scrapped becuase of funding problems.

The Age - EPA places dozens of city landfills on notice. A shameful waste of biogas.

The landfills, mostly former council tips that received putrescible domestic waste, are dotted across metropolitan Melbourne from Frankston in the south to Craigieburn in the north, through growth corridors such as Cranbourne, Epping and Melton, in more established suburbs such as Box Hill, Northcote and Mount Eliza and the Dorset Golf Course in Croydon.

But in the wake of the Brookland Greens methane scandal, the EPA yesterday refused to identify which landfills were unlined and therefore more likely to leach liquid waste or potentially dangerous gases. Brookland Greens residents, whose houses are located within 200 metres of a former Cranbourne landfill, have been told to abandon their homes for fear of possible methane gas explosions. The methane had escaped from the neighbouring Stevensons Road landfill, which was never lined with clay because its 1996 licence did not require it.

The Age - Transport experts cool on car-pooling plan

THE State Government is expected to launch a major car-pooling offensive in its November transport plan, arguing that Melbourne's chronic traffic congestion could be permanently reduced to school holiday levels if enough commuters took it up. But transport academics believe the push will be futile and say that car pooling, while worthwhile, can never match better public transport.

The Australian - Rio teams up with Atlas and GE for future mine technology

RIO Tinto has formed separate alliances with Atlas Copco and General Electric to develop new technology and energy efficient solutions.

The Australian - TLG knocked back tied gas supply in WA

BUSINESSES affected by the West Australian Varanus Island gas pipeline explosion were offered alternative supply arrangements by the former state government on condition they gave up their rights to future claims against suppliers, The Laminex Group (TLG) has told the senate.

Peak Energy - Futurists And Peak Oil

I noticed a pair of futurists talking about peak oil today - first Richard Watson in The Daily Telegraph, as part of a grab bag of predictions - Futurologist Richard Watson's 2050 vision: goodbye Belgium, hello brain transplants. ... Next up is Peter Schwartz, who doesn't believe in peak oil (presumably he means he doesn't believe we are at peak oil, rather than believing oil supply will never peak) and told a Cleantech conference so - as well as pointing out that most of them didn't have experience in the energy industry (personally I don't view this as a big deal, as an oil industry background is unlikely to be of much benefit to a cleantech entrepreneur) - Peak oil "wrong," says Schwartz.

Schwartz is one of the scenario planners I talked about in "The Limits To Scenario Planning", with a background at both Shell's scenario planning division and GBN. He was also the author of Wired's infamous "long boom" article and a strong proponent of the hydrogen economy (we're still waiting for that one Pete).

While I often agree (or at least sympathise) with his point of view, in this case he seems to be misunderstanding the important aspects of "real world" peak oil, which are based on past discoveries, flow rates and EROI - if you aren't finding (and developing) large quantities of oil (fast enough to replace production lost through depletion of existing fields and to meet new demand growth), then it doesn't matter if there could be a lot of oil under the Atlantic ocean which could be extracted at high cost (and with long lead times). For that matter there is a lot of oil sitting under Iraq which would in theory let us peak around 6 million barrels or so a day higher than current production - if it was being extracted - but the fact remains that this isn't happening.

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