NSW Peak Oil Response Plan Bill 2008

The NSW Greens provided this update about their peak oil bill in the NSW Parliament.

The Greens Peak Oil Response Plan Bill was voted down in the NSW Upper House on Tuesday 3rd March - by 20 votes to 19 votes.

The object of the Greens Bill was to establish a Peak Oil Taskforce, which would inquire into and report on the best strategies to mitigate the impact of peak oil on New South Wales. We also proposed a moratorium on the construction of oil-dependent infrastructure, such as motorways, for the duration of the inquiry.

Lee Rhiannon's speech in reply and the vote on the bill can be seen in Hansard here: http://parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/hansArt.nsf/V3Key/LC20090303040



The Labor party did not support the bill on the basis that the market will solve the problem of peak oil and on the basis that the Government is already sufficiently prepared for peak oil. In the debate, the Coalition were split on their approach to the bill - Trevor Khan said his party would not oppose the bill, but Rick Colless referred to peak oil as 'nebulous' and said that his party would not reveal its position. Ultimately the Coalition did support the bill however there are clearly internal tensions about the response to peak oil.

Neither of the major parties mentioned public transport as part of the response to peak oil in the parliamentary debate.

You can follow the entire debate here:
http://parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3HHBBill?open&vw...

And the bill is here:
http://parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/0/FAB53D7D8C558F...

"The Labor party did not support the bill on the basis that the market will solve the problem of peak oil " Ho Ho Ho!!!

Sheesh, Have they forgotten already? $146 a barrel and the whole house of cards came tumbling down.
Yep. The market at work.
Are they enjoying the experience?

Stupid apes.
Can't join the dots.

We are heading towards a crisis of legitimacy in this nation and most of the rest of the world. Within a couple of years when all these stimulus packages have failed and it has become pretty clear that they never had a chance of succeeding because they didn't address the root cause of the problem (IMO finite planet vs infinite growth model) there will be a lot of hungry unemployed people who will also be very angry. The consequences of this will not be good.

I wouldn't call them Apes though Arthur, that is belittling the apes.

E10 to the rescue!!!! Yay!

If they had bothered to seek the advice of an investment banker they would have been told that the price volatility in oil will prohibit the adoption of anything that may substitute for it - unless mandated by government.

With oil around $40, ethanol can't compete - nor biodiesel, etc. etc.
not that I think there is any one or a number of options that will be able to substitute for oil.

can I just say for the record here that reading the Hansard makes me absolutely sick.

Australia is obviously only going to deal with PO when we are well on our way down the back side of the curve.

Everybody get your lifeboats ready.

Mash
Father, Farmer, Engineer, Drummer, and yes, feeling very much like a Doomer today.

My lifeboat has a lot of energy stocks in it...
;-)

can I just say for the record here that reading the Hansard makes me absolutely sick.

I know what you mean! With a few notable exceptions, hearing any of our elected 'grey' party politicians on this topic is very depressing. Even more depressing is going to Canberra and briefing various departmental advisors on it. We are going nowhere fast.