Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
Royal Dutch Shell’s failure to clean up after an oil spill in rural
Nigeria was the catalyst that sparked the recent spate of kidnappings
and threats by local revolutionaries to close Nigeria’s oil industry.
The Christian Science Monitor reports
that global oil production is stretched so tight that an interruption
to Nigerian oil supplies, though less than four per cent of global
production, could cause a price spike of up to $US80 per barrel.
According to an editorial in The Australian Financial Review
(20/1/2006, p.86), agreement on how water trading will work in the
southern Murray-Darling Basin is already seven months overdue, and a
second deadline is likely to pass this month unless there is an
unexpected rapprochement between the two largest states.
NSW ignores peer pressure: Victoria, supported by South
Australia and the Commonwealth, believes water rights should be
tradeable across the border according to an exchange rate mechanism. In
principle, this would seem to be most consistent with the goal of
creating an efficient and transparent national market, which the
National Water Commission – established under the National Water
Initiative (NWI) – wants without delay. But NSW wants to retain its
system of differential rights for different users and to “tag†water
rights when they travel interstate so that they are dealt with under
“state of origin†rules.
“Unconscionable” irrigation methods: At the moment, some
three-quarters of water used nationally goes into irrigation, of which
two-thirds (or half the national total) goes into the lowest-value uses
– rice, cotton and dairy. And an unconscionable proportion – between 20
and 40 per cent – of irrigation water is lost to leakage and
evaporation from open channels. This is improving as upgrades are
slowly made to infrastructure.
NSW Greens demand key documents on Sydney’s desalination
For months the State Government has been sitting on a secret $250
million water recycling proposal that could provide 5 per cent of
Sydney’s water needs and increase by four times the amount of recycled
water in the city, reported The Sydney Morning Herald (20/1/2006, p.1).
30GL water in gas pipes: Under the confidential proposal by the
gas company AGL, disused gas mains would deliver recycled water to
industry. The plan was put to Sydney Water last March, and AGL wants to
begin construction in July. The project, which could provide 30
gigalitres of non-potable water for use by industry, only came to light
yesterday.
Answers demanded of govt: The Greens had requested a review of
claims for privilege by the Premier’s department on key documents
relating to desalination. The Government will now be asked to explain
why the proposal was not made public during the heated debate last year
over plans to build the $1.3 billion desalination plant at Kurnell.
Six
former administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, including
five Republicans, said yesterday that the Bush administration should
impose mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions to curb global
warming.
The group, which came together in Washington for a
roundtable discussion to celebrate the agency’s 35th anniversary, said
the White House is not moving fast enough to address the global threat
that human-generated climate change poses.
See Washington Post story
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 19, 2006; Page A04
A new wind farm on the Victorian south coast has been added to Country
Energy’s suite of renewable energy sources, which the company says will
help it meet renewable energy targets and growing demand for green
power.
30,000MWh a year: Known as Wonthaggi Wind Farm, the facility has
six large wind turbines and is expected to produce 30,000MWh of
electricity per annum – enough energy to power 4000 homes. Country
Energy says the facility will save around 28,000 tonnes of greenhouse
gas emissions each year, which would otherwise have been produced from
coal-fired power stations.
The NSW state government’s own Drought Expert Panel told it that
groundwater extraction would be cheaper and would produce more water
than a desalination plant, reported The Daily Telegraph (17/1/2006, p.10).
Report backs groundwater: The panel’s draft report, tabled in
Parliament as part of an inquiry into the desalination plant, preferred
groundwater as a more viable option for securing Sydney’s drinking
water supply.
Panel includes top water chiefs: The panel was made up of the
heads of Sydney Water, the Sydney Catchment Authority and the
Department of Infrastructure Planning and Natural Resources.
But govt listens to Texan water specialist: The revelation that
another expert group had condemned the desalination plant comes as the
government conceded its expert advice on which it made its decision to
go ahead with the plant was a Texas-based water specialist Tom
Pankratz. Pankratz was also head of the International Desalination
Association and was a paid consultant for Sydney Water.