The Bullroarer - Thursday 13th November 2008

Herald Sun - CSIRO warns of climate change doomsday.

THE world may be on track to face economic and ecological collapses by the middle of the century, according to CSIRO research. The 1972 bestselling scientific report The Limits to Growth warned of possible doomsday scenarios created by unchecked use of resources.

A study by CSIRO physicist Dr Graham Turner found data projections made in The Limits to Growth were correct. Dr Turner said projections relating to population, food and industrial production, pollution and consumption of non-renewable natural resources between 1970 and 2000 were broadly accurate. "Unless (The Limits of Growth) is invalidated by other scientific research, the data comparison presented here lends support to the conclusion that the global system is on an unsustainable trajectory," he said.

NZ Herald - Air NZ chasing holy grail of alternative fuel sources

Air New Zealand will put its biofuel through a punishing two-hour trial over the Hauraki Gulf hoping it will emerge as the "holy grail" of alternatives to traditional jet kerosene.

Ground testing of the jatropha-based fuel has shown it is lighter and has more energy than existing fuel.

Stuff.co.nz - The rig's in place, now Maari drills for the oil

The drilling rig is finally in place for the $500 million Maari oilfield development off the Taranaki coast, after months of delays.

The first oil from the estimated 50 million-barrel field about 80 kilometres off south Taranaki is still about three months away.

Earlier this year, the first production had been expected by the end of September.

The delay has been costly, with a big drop in oil prices and an expensive lease rate for the drilling rig - thought to be about $500,000 a day.

Bloomberg - Perth Mint Doubles Gold Output on Haven Buying

The Perth Mint, producer of 10 percent of the world's bullion, doubled output in the past six months, joining a global push to boost production as investors seek protection from the credit crisis.

SMH - Why car rescue is at risk of stalling

THE Federal Government has thrown a $3.2 billion lifeline to the struggling car-making industry but its package is at risk of being swamped by the severe financial stress of Ford and Holden's US parent companies.

SMH - PM puts his foot on the gas and doubles LPG fuel subsidy

SIX months ago the subsidy for motorists making the switch from petrol to LPG was under threat from the Federal Government's budget razor gang.

Yesterday Kevin Rudd took one of the two subsidies on offer under the scheme and doubled it.

SMH - Car subsidies blow good money out the exhaust

Only one good thing comes out of the Government's new car plan: maintaining the schedule to reduce tariffs to 5 per cent by 2010, which resists pressure from the car industry to slow the pace of reduction. Otherwise it is a folly that betrays Labor's expensive manufacturing fetish

The Australian - Car giants 'laugh at Aussie suckers'

THE American owners of local Ford and Holden plants will be laughing at the Australian "suckers" who have handed them a $6.2 billion industry assistance package, former car company executives say.

Expressing disappointment yesterday at the latest industry handout, industry veterans said the money would ultimately end up back in Detroit rather than bolstering needy sectors of the local industry.

SMH - Sydney petrol prices slashed

Tuesday has once again delivered on its promise of cheaper petrol, with regular unleaded prices sinking as much as 14 cents a litre in and around Sydney overnight.

Courier Mail - Petrol price may fall to $1 a litre

PETROL prices have fallen significantly for the second time in a fortnight, reaching a 12-month low. The national average price dropped 6.7 cents in the past week.

SMH - Virgin cuts fuel surcharge

Low-cost carrier Virgin Blue has cut the fuel surcharge on its airfares, following a decline in the oil price.

SMH - 'Green your home' energy scheme urged

A FEDERAL parliamentary committee has recommended a national scheme to pay people for generating environmentally friendly forms of energy at home should be introduced as quickly as possible.

SMH - Mini-budget introduces bridge, tunnel congestion taxes

The NSW Government will introduce a congestion toll on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Harbour Tunnel in an Australian first.

SMH - Super-department may control trains, buses, ferries

A SHAKE-UP of transport across NSW could be in the wings, as senior bureaucrats work on the creation of a co-ordinating agency to take control of rail, bus and ferry services, integrate timetables and limit inter-agency feuding.

SMH - Maldives to buy new homeland as sea levels rise

THE Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - possibly in Australia - as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees, the country's first democratically elected president has said.

SMH - Coal miners hit by NSW budget

Coal miners' shares have dropped after NSW said it will raise coal royalties from next year to shore up its sagging finances.

ABN Newswire - Eastern Star Gas (ASX:ESG) Massive Potential of the Narrabri Coal Seam Gas Project Confirmed

Eastern Star Gas (ASX:ESG)(PINK:ESGLF), together with joint venture partner Gastar Exploration Ltd (AMEX:GST)(TSE:YGA), is pleased to announce that results of the Edgeroi-1 corehole have confirmed the northern extension of Bohena Coal Seam development and consequently the overall size and prospectivity of the coal seam gas resource potential of Petroleum Exploration Licence 238 (PEL 238).

Scoop.co.nz - In Final Days, Bush Pushes for Iraq's Oil

A leaked version of the US-Iraq status-of-forces agreement (SOFA), supplied and translated for Truthout by American Friends Service Committee Iraq consultant Raed Jarrar, states that the US will indefinitely "continue to protect Iraq's natural resources of gas and oil and protect Iraq's foreign financial and economic assets."

3News NZ - Queenstown's backdoor could be mined for oil shale

In the Nevis Valley, to the East of the Remarkables Range, a London-based energy company is poised to hunt for hundreds of tonnes of oil shale.

Stuff.co.nz - Major oil hunt starts in Tasman Bay

A major Australian exploration company was expected to start its search for oil in Tasman Bay on Wednesday.

Stuff.co.nz - Lyttelton Port sticks with forecast

Lyttelton Port of Christchurch is sticking with a 2008/09 net profit forecast of around $10 million despite outperforming both revenue and net profit targets in the four months to October 30.
[.....]
In the four months to October container volumes were up 7 percent compared to the year earlier period, with coal volumes up 52 percent. These coal volumes were expected to be 10 percent to 15 percent higher in the June 30, 2009 year from 2008.

ABC - Hunter coal bottlenecks 'costing billions'

The Minerals Council of Australia has given a scathing assessment of the New South Wales Hunter Valley coal chain, labelling it a planning failure in its submission to Infrastructure Australia.

The Age - Coal industry reaches out for love

THE coal industry feels unloved. Its polling tells it Australians have no idea what, if anything, it is doing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions — and most say they've never heard of carbon capture and storage.

So the coalminers want to convert us. Today the Australian Coal Association launches a $1.5 million ad campaign — and a $1 million website — to tell us what it's doing to develop what it calls "NewGenCoal".

Association executive director Ralph Hillman predicted that carbon capture and storage would be commercially viable by 2017, and said the industry was investing $1 billion to ensure coal a future as a low-emission technology.

The Age - Garrett snubs energy conference

ORGANISERS and participants of the Asia-Pacific region's leading conference on renewable energy have expressed exasperation at the Rudd Government's failure to support their interests while spending billions on the car and coal industries.

The Age - Clean coal project goes ahead in QLD

Construction of an Australian-first clean coal project aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions is underway in Queensland.

ABC - Investment needed to avert fuel shortage: IEA

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that massive investments are needed in the oil industry and alternative power sources if the world is to avoid a shortage of fuel.

In its outlook for 2008, the agency predicts that demand from India and China will cause the price of oil to reach $US200 a barrel by 2030.

Herald Sun - Demand for oil may drop for first time in 40 years

CRUDE oil prices may fall as low as $US40 a barrel in coming months as the global recession worsens and household demand slackens.

Economists expect the severity of the recession in the US may even cause oil demand to fall this year for the first time since 1983.

ABC - Farmers urged to take advantage of fuel price drop

AgForce grains policy director Lindsay Kreig says it is great news for broadacre operators.

"One of the biggest costs in fuel that they have every year is the harvest operation with the amount of machines that they have moving," he said.

"So this is a great time for them to be able to take advantage of that.

SMH - NSW coalminers take hit to bottom line

Increased royalties in state's mini-budget will eat into profits.

COALMINERS have reason to be unhappy with the NSW Government's mini-budget: the increased royalties on coal could cost them up to 5 per cent of their annual profits.

Macquarie Equities said the decision to raise the royalty rate - and to no longer allow deductions for transport costs - would especially affect investments in newer mining regions like the Gunnedah Basin, which are further from the port.

The Australian - Largest state a drag on the nation

Sydney motorists can only grit their teeth and pay up

NSW Premier Nathan Rees can't drive a car and is chauffeured around, so his steep new taxes on motorists will have little impact on him. As a means of making up for more than a decade of financial mismanagement and freeing up traffic in Sydney's CBD and other key business areas, the congestion charge and the world's most expensive parking might be justified if commuters had a feasible alternative. But the juxtaposition sums up service delivery and planning in NSW where yet another public transport promise, the North West Metro, was shelved this week.

Promised by the Carr government in 1998 as a link from the northwestern Sydney suburb of Epping to Rouse Hill, that much needed project, earmarked to service a rapidly expanding region, was reannounced in expanded form by former premier Bob Carr in 2005. Proving that talk and photo opportunities are cheaper than actually building anything, the North West link was reannounced yet again in March this year by Morris Iemma.

Stuff.co.nz - Algae to biofuel co seeks to raise up to $30m

A company which is developing technology at the top of the South Island to turn algae into biofuel is looking to raise up to $30 million through a public share offer.

Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation said it was offering up to 60m new shares at 50c each. It was seeking to raise $20m but reserved the right to accept over-subscriptions of up to $10m.

How about this feature in The Age: In praise of frugality: no to credit cards

Perhaps I should take up the offer of a credit card and get into debt? Then I could get a car so I could drive out to shopping centres to buy in bulk, and while I'm at it, I could also get a mortgage so I'd have something to stress about with my contemporaries who live 20 kilometres from the city, so they have to drive everywhere. Argh. I'd much prefer to keep walking to the library.

That's partly the theme I was working on here:
Oil, House Prices, Credit? Three parts of the same story

And Professor Depew and Mish Shedlock started a few months ago writing about how it's now 'Cool to be Frugal': http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/04/cool-to-be-frugal.html

Yup. If only I could convince my wife... we don't need more stuff! And we definitely didn't need a wholew new set of kitchen utensils. I'm told that the old ones were the wrong color - they didn't match the decor in the kitchen. :-(

That story about Garrett and the solar energy conference is just shameful.

I think Dr Watt is a very appropriate name for someone working in the energy field.

On a more serios note a pity about the govt not attending that conference on renewables. Personally I can't see them handing over the money to the car industry myself unless it is genuinly for hybrids. Especially with the recent downturn in the budget surplus.

The coal industry feels unloved. Its polling tells it Australians have no idea what, if anything, it is doing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions — and most say they've never heard of carbon capture and storage.

Earth to coal industry: Australians are not as gullible as you think they are.