The Age - Secretly green

What contribution can secret intelligence make to a very public issue such as climate change?

In part, the answer lies in understanding the role of intelligence in formulating foreign and security policy. Decision makers always want answers but rarely have the luxury of sufficient information or time. So intelligence agencies are mandated with a specialised role — using technology, secret sources and the masses of material freely swirling around — to collect information and judge possible threats and emerging trends to better inform decisions.

Climate change has an intelligence dimension in that analysts seek to anticipate how foreign powers are likely to react to the problem — their likely approach to international negotiations to reduce greenhouse emissions, for example, or to the prospect of diminishing fresh water supplies in a particular territory. Will people be forced to abandon their homes, and where will they go? Will environmental degradation force countries to co-operate or to fight wars? The implications are as far reaching as the questions you can imagine.

ABC - Natural gas industry urges compulsory usage targets

The main companies which distribute natural gas around the country are calling on the Federal Government to set a target for natural gas use, to help Australia burn less coal. Natural gas burns more cleanly than coal, but the Greens say natural gas is no better in the long run.

Business Spectator - Interview with 3D Oil founder and managing director Noel Newell

Yeah look, one of the interesting things or the facts that people actually miss, is that oil and gas have become very, very hard to find, not just in let’s say the quality, but particularly in Australia. It’s become very, very hard to find. We’ve only seen one significant oil discovery offshore in the last ten years or so, excluding coal bed methane of course here. What we’ve seen in the last few years is the proliferation of oil and gas companies also at a time when costs are the highest they’ve ever been, so before the financial crisis hit, we were all very in a spot of bother really if you stood back and looked at it, but the financial crisis what it’s done, it’s just speeded things up a little. So, I think it was on the way anyway to be honest.

SMH - Junee trains are back on track

A TOWN almost crippled when a previous state government shut down the country rail network is looking to private enterprise to regain some of its former railway prominence. Junee, on the main southern line between Sydney and Melbourne, lost 400 jobs, or one-third of its workforce, when its role as a traditional rail town came to an end under the Greiner government.

Bloomberg - BG Group Ends Queensland Gas’s A$750 Million Power Plant Plan

BG Group Plc, the U.K.’s third- largest natural-gas producer, canceled Queensland Gas Co.’s plan to build a A$750 million ($495 million) power plant in Australia after the project was found uneconomic.

Bloomberg - Queensland Hunter’s A$850 Million Gas Line to Proceed

Queensland Hunter Gas Pipeline, a closely held venture in Australia, said it will proceed with a A$850 million ($566 million) project even after BG Group Plc scrapped a planned power plant that was to use the line. ... BG, which has bought Australia’s Queensland Gas Co., said yesterday it canceled the company’s plan to build the A$750 million Hunter project in New South Wales state because it was uneconomic. The plant would have used about one-third of the capacity of the line, which will run from south Queensland to Newcastle, providing the Sydney region’s third major gas supply.

The Australian - Blue Energy to pursue CSG partners, CEO quits

BLUE Energy is seeking partners to assist in exploring its coal seam gas acreage, as chief executive Bill Williams steps down.

Business Spectator - AGL puts the pressure on

AGL Energy has lodged its bidder's statement and offer to Sydney Gas shareholders in the power utility's takeover bid for the coal-seam gas explorer.

Business Spectator - Gas explorer thinks pink

Coal bed methane gas explorer Eastern Star Gas has begun trading on a US over-the-counter exchange in a move to access US capital markets.

The Australian - Tough times for local mining sector as prices sink

THE nation's mining industry has had one of its darkest weeks in years as the global economic crisis bit harder. More than 1000 workers were axed, or put on notice, and more than $US2 billion ($3 billion) of expansion shelved or slowed. Plummeting mineral demand has combined with the drying up of credit to force previously high-flying miners like Rio Tinto, OZ Minerals and Xstrata to take the knife to growth, production and workers. Since July, more than 5000 mining jobs, or 3.5 per cent of the nation's 140,000-strong mining workforce have been axed, with more job cuts to come in the next month.

SMH - Fresh round of cuts and closures on way

AFTER years of boom times, mine employees and contractors are doing it tough. Rio Tinto, Xstrata and OZ Minerals yesterday announced more mine closures and job cuts in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia respectively.

ABC - Surat Basin 'shielded' from economic crisis

The Dalby Regional Council Mayor, Ray Brown, says the Surat Basin is booming, despite mining industry job losses in other parts of Queensland. Mining companies have cut more than a 1,000 jobs in Queensland since November because of the global economic downturn. Councillor Brown says workers would be more than welcome on the Darling Downs. "There's been no let-up, particularly in the gas exploration industry and production," he said.

The Age - Sprawling transport not up to par

A REPORT comparing the public transport systems of 52 cities internationally, commissioned by the State Government, has found that only North American cities have worse access to services than Melbourne.

The Age - Ocean fertilisation plan near Antarctica hits trouble.

AN ELABORATE international experiment to fertilise a swathe of the Southern Ocean has run into trouble. Tonnes of iron dust were to be dumped into the sea from a German research ship across a 300 square kilometre area in the experiment to examine its possible use in absorbing a greenhouse gas. With the expedition's 48 scientists already at sea planning to begin work near the Antarctic Peninsula, the German science ministry has suspended approval, Nature reported.

Smaller attempts have been made in recent years to examine whether iron dust can encourage marine algal blooms and increase the ocean's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide. It is an unproven remedy with side effects, according to the Australian Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre in Hobart.

The Age - Marine expert hits desal claim

THE marine expert who dared to challenge the State Government over the environmental impact of the Wonthaggi desalination plant has complained of unfair treatment and misrepresentation in last week's approval report.

The Age - Water rebates flow to the wealthy

STATE Government water savings rebates are being claimed by well-off middle-class people living in leafy eastern and north-eastern suburbs. Overwhelmingly, they are used to keep gardens green. Official figures obtained by The Sunday Age show a tiny number of people claim the Government's preferred $1000 rebate for using tank water for toilets and laundries. Instead, most claim the smaller rebate of $150 for a tank that is not connected inside the house and who pour the water saved onto their larger-than-average gardens.

SMH - NSW bucks national trend for gas emissions

THE amount of greenhouse gases pumped out by energy generation and transport fell in NSW last year, bucking the national trend. High petrol prices and a move towards diesel helped the state lower its carbon dioxide emissions by about half a million tonnes in 2008 compared with 2007, although NSW became even more dependent on burning coal to generate electricity.

ABC - Make skilled migration cut for environment: ACF

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has urged the Federal Government to make a "substantial reduction" to its skilled migration program in this year's Budget. In its Budget submission to Treasury, the ACF says that if current migration levels continue they would contribute to a tripling of Australia's population by the end of the century. The ACF argues that the projected population growth would make it more costly for the country to meet its emissions reduction targets, placing a high burden on "already stretched" urban infrastructure and ecological systems.

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