Daily Telegraph: Proposal to scrap North West Metro for a busway

THE $12 billion North West Metro should be scrapped and replaced with a bus transitway or "autotrams", according to a radical new proposal before the Government. The draft discussion paper finds that the actual cost to the Government of the controversial North West Metro could be up to $50 per passenger journey.

The Age: Over 100 jobs to go as car parts firm closes

Automotive components manufacturer Teson Trims - the main employer in the small town of Euroa - is to close with the loss of 126 jobs.Ninety-two workers from the town in north-east Victoria, which has a population of about 2800, have lost their jobs and a further 34 staff from the company's Mitcham plant will go.

The 50-year-old company manufactures components including door inserts, kick panels and spare wheel covers.

WA Today: Petrol-free cars could be way of the future: Toyota

Car manufacturers are racing to develop the first mass-produced and affordable petrol-free automobile for consumers, says Toyota Australia chief executive and president Max Yasuda.

Launching Toyota's 2008 sustainability report today, Mr Yasuda said without solving environmental problems created by automobiles, the car industry had no future.

The first manufacturer to produce an affordable petrol-free car could dominate the market.

Mercury: Tassie in mix for new green energy

TWO-THIRDS of Tasmania's energy needs could be generated from waves, says a renewable energy company.
Carnegie Corporation is in talks with the State Government about setting up a wave-energy trial in Tasmania.

The West Australian company will release an independent report to the stock exchange today, estimating Australia has a wave-energy resource of 170,000 megawatts, including 17,000MW in Tasmanian waters.

Of that, the report found 1700MW, or 68 per cent of the state's energy needs, was economically extractable.

Business Day NZ: Hyundai electric car to spark shift in driving habits

A tiny car with a top speed of 120km/h and a price tag of about $35,000 coupled with a bit of Kiwi ingenuity is tipped to spark a shift in the way we drive. The country's first private electric car will be plugged into the power grid within six weeks.

Hyundai has announced it will be the first car manufacturer to sell new electric cars in New Zealand, and it has already sold one vehicle.

The Age: Emissions forum not hot air: Liberals

A SUBURBAN Liberal Party branch has been attacked for holding a climate science forum that will hear only one, unfashionable point of view: that climate change has nothing to do with skyrocketing greenhouse emissions.

The forum, held by the party's Kew branch this Wednesday, will be addressed by William Kininmonth, a former head of the National Climate Centre, who believes climate change is a natural hazard.

The invitation to the forum includes a scathing attack on Government climate adviser Ross Garnaut, accusing him of choosing to "disregard or effectively to deny" scientific certainties.

NZ Herald: Editorial: Cycleway just too expensive

Last week, Torbay correspondent Judy Barfoot wrote glowingly of her experience of pedalling across the Auckland Harbour Bridge the previous weekend as part of a protest group. "For 35 years, I have wanted to cycle over the harbour bridge," she enthused. She did not say whether she actually enjoyed the ride: if, for example, the steep gradient was off-putting or if the wind provided an unpleasant buffeting. Yet, after the initial thrill has gone, these downsides will be a major deterrent to most cyclists. So much so that use would be far too limited to justify the proposed cost of cycling and pedestrian paths.

Stuff.co.nz: Electric ute a real beaut for commute

The solution to one Christchurch family's petrol-cost worries has been as easy as flicking a switch.

John and Jennifer Shortall, who have four children, crunched the numbers for a year considering how best to tackle the commute from Papanui to Lincoln, where John works for Landcare Research.

They finally came up with, what they believed, was the right answer a second-hand, three-wheel electric ute classified as a motorcycle, not a car.