The Central Darling Shire anticipates climate change could have implications for water security in the region.
The council has been hosting a series of community workshops in White Cliffs, Ivanhoe and Wilcannia this week, as part of a Federal Government program to manage water in the Murray-Darling basin.
Utilities engineer with the council, Darren Scotty, said climate change could mean the shire has less water.
“The projections in terms of climate is that we’ll be, in this part of the world, a little bit wetter and hotter during the summer months, and a little bit hotter and drier in the winter months,” he said.
“But that can have implications for fun off and boars and that type of thing.
“So it’s really a contingency plan I guess.”
He called on residents to contact the council with water-saving ideas.
“The specifics, we don’t know,” he said.
“The stage of the process is, we’re at the evaluation stage, for community workshops will inform the consultants’ preparation for a draft stratefgy.
“It really is a bit of wait and see as to what specific measures can or may or will be implemented with the perceived threats or the projected threats of climate change.”
As Mitt Romney and Barack Obama intensify the showdown over tax breaks for wind energy, the US state of Iowa, home to a significant proportion of US energy jobs, is the key battle venue.The heart of the issue is the wind production tax credit, the aim of which is to strengthen the market for turbines and towers. The credit will expire at the end of the year unless Congress acts to extend it.The black-and-white breakdown of the issue is that proponents of the tax breaks fear that in the absence of these breaks, the jobs will disappear, while critics…
Oil demand in the United States was stronger in May compared with the same time last year. The U.S. Energy Department, in its monthly report, found consumption rose for the first time in more than a year. Meanwhile, onshore activity in the United States increased in terms of drilling activity, though field production in Alaska continued to decline. With political debates stirring over the direction of U.S. energy policy, the numbers suggests a general expansion in the domestic energy sector is underway despite the rhetoric. House leaders in…
The Q2:2012 economic reports are in and—to use a technical term—the results suck! GDP growth has slowed to 1.5%, unemployment rates remain stubbornly high at 8.2% over average nationwide but the damage to youth, black and Hispanic and those with less than college educations are horrible. Clearly we need an economic shot in the arm.How could there possibly be any good news on the horizon?The good news is the big shift in energy is a complete reversal of fortunes for North America and the US economy in particular. Less than…
Engineers have used inexpensive materials to create a solar cell certified at a world-record 7.0 percent efficiency.The research paves the way for solar cells that can be fabricated on flexible substrates in the same way newspapers are rapidly printed in mass quantities. (Credit: University of Toronto)The solar cell represents a 37 percent increase in efficiency over the previous certified record.A breakthrough in the development of colloidal quantum dot (CQD) films allowed the researchers from the University of Toronto and King Abdullah University…
It is not proper to speak of “climate skeptics,” since all scientists (including we social scientists) are skeptical of all data and theories every day, all the time, and are willing to change our position if enough information and analysis emerges to challenge the old paradigms. But beyond just skeptics, there are always in any debate “contrarians,” people who challenge a theory with little more on their side than radical doubt and deep suspicion, and who unsystematically latch on to every little thing that the theory hasn’t…
In accordance with President Obama’s Executive Order, all Federal Agencies must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by the year 2020, this includes National Parks, such as Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay.In order to achieve this target, and also to reduce the $700,000 a year fuel bill that resulted from running the existing pair of diesel generators to power the island, a two year old plan has finally been realized to install a solar farm at the prison to provide all its electricity.Alcatraz now boasts its own 307kW photovoltaic…
For a variety of reasons there still exist many untapped oil fields in the world. Those reasons may be political, technological, geological, or economical; but as time goes on they are being resolved to the extent that some huge fields are now becoming available for exploration and production.The Jubilee Field in Ghana is estimated to contain 1.8 billion barrels of crude. Tullow oil discovered the field in 2007 and is now working to develop its potential. In 2011 it produced 66,000 barrels a day.The Chicontepec Basin in Mexico is estimated to contain…
After years of delays the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) looks as though it will finally go ahead with plans to build the Middle East’s largest oil refinery.Five international engineering firms have submitted tenders to win the project management and consultancy contract for the Al-Zour refinery, including US-based Foster Wheeler and Fluor Corp, Australia’s WorleyParsons, France’s Technip, and Britain’s Amec. The government is expected to announce the results next month, a senior executive from KNPC told Reuters.“The…
Many countries in South America are located in global hotspots, and with the continents population expected to grow 72% by 2035, climate change is set to have a significant impact on the region. For their part they in the battle against climate change they are developing large amounts of renewable energy capacity.Hydropower was generally the renewable energy of choice, and there is a large capacity installed through South America, however although there still remains a large amount of untapped potential, it is mostly located in remote regions with…
Australia’s Foregin Minister, Bob Carr, has announced that Australia recently signed an agreement with the UAE to supply the Gulf state with uranium for the forseeable future. The deal states that Australia do not have to take the radioactive waste back once the uranium has been used.Carr explained that the agreement “is a commitment by the Australian government” which “sets up a framework under which we will become a reliable supplier of uranium to the UAE.”This agreement has been signed just two weeks after the Federal…
Kelvin Thomson’s Letter to the Editor re: Age article on Melbourne Population Growth
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Cianflone, Anthony (K. Thomson, MP)Anthony.Cianflone@aph.gov.au
2:58 PM (26 minutes ago)
to Tim
Tim Colebatch’s report on the rapid growth of Melbourne raises the question, is this growth good for Melbourne? As he points out, during the last decade Melbourne’s population grew by much more than any other Australian city. Melbourne grew by over 647,000 people, with Sydney the next largest with an increase of 477,000.
It is clear that the pace of this growth has been way too rapid for State and local governments, as well as public and private infrastructure providers, to cope with. The consequences have been severe, with travel times to and from work blowing out, electricity and council rates skyrocketing, residents losing their ability to preserve their street scape and neighbourhood character, and young people unable to afford a house with a backyard anywhere near where they grew up.
It doesn’t have to be this way. As Tim Colebatch reports, 60 per cent of this growth came from overseas migration. Both our permanent and temporary migrant worker programs were greatly increased during the last decade, supposedly to deal with the mining boom, but instead many migrant workers end up in Melbourne. The migrant worker programs should be returned to the level of the 1990s and 1980s, and Melbourne would be able to cope much better than it is at present.
This is first and foremost the responsibility of the Federal Government, but it would help if State and local government started calling for it, instead of behaving like drivers of the getaway car, which is what they have done all too often during the past decade.
THE US shale gas train wreck continued on Tuesday when BP posted a loss for the June quarter of $US1.4 billion and announced write-downs of
$US4.8 billion, including a $US1 billion-plus reduction in the carrying value of its American shale gas assets.
It followed BG Group’s $US1.3 billion write-down of the value of its US shale gas interests late last week on a lower long-term gas price outlook, and Encana Corporation’s $US1.7 billion write-down on shale assets in the US and Canada, accompanied by a warning that more were likely if gas prices did not recover.
BHP will add to the carnage on August 22, when it reports a 2011-12 profit of about $US17 billion, and a write-down of shale gas assets bought in the US last year at a cost of $US20 billion that will put BP, BG and Encana in the shade. A $US3 billion hit is on the cards, but it could be higher.
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BHP is part of a rush into shale gas acreage in the southern states of the US by a large herd of oil majors, including BP, Total, Chevron, Petronas, CNOOC, PetroChina, BG, Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui, and they are all victims of their own success.
The standard strategy has been to buy up acreage from US independents, and apply superior balance-sheet power to increase exploration and production. It has resulted in a production surge that will eventually turn the US into a petroleum products exporter, but is crushing its domestic gas prices in the meantime.
US domestic gas is priced at the Henry Hub, an intersection of nine interstate and four national pipelines in southern Louisiana. It fell from a peak of $US14 per thousand cubic feet in 2005 to $US3.88 per thousand cubic feet in February last year when BHP paid $US4.6 billion for Arkansas gas shale leases owned by a US independent, Chesapeake. It was not much higher at $US4.27 per thousand cubic feet a year ago when BHP paid $US15 billion – 65 per cent above the market price – for Petrohawk, a listed US shale gas company.
By April this year, after a mild American winter, the Henry Hub price had fallen below $2 to a 10-year low. It has recovered slightly since then and was at $3.21 yesterday, but the 2005 peak will not be revisited: there is simply too much new shale gas coming on stream.
BHP’s strategy is similar to those of all the other big companies – increase production and wait for the gas price to rise as the US becomes an important supplier in the global liquefied natural gas market, where Asian demand is holding prices up.
However, LNG export facilities and contracts take years to put together, and the Henry Hub price is reacting now to both the expansion in domestic supply and weak demand as the US economy continues to crawl away from the 2008-09 global crisis.
BHP has been able to offset some of the damage by increasing production of liquids out of fields it picked up with Petrohawk. They reference the oil price rather than the Henry Hub price, holding revenue up, and limiting the potential size of the write-down.
The forward price curve for Henry Hub gas is, however, still about $US1.50 lower than it was when BHP entered the race. BHP is one of the bigger producers, and market estimates of the write-down cluster between $US2 billion and $US6 billion: not fatal for a group that will post earnings of about $US17 billion, but a setback, for the chief executive, Marius Kloppers, and BHP’s petroleum boss, Mike Yeager, in particular.
SOLOMON Lew has been attached limpet-like to Country Road’s share register for 14 years with an 11.8 per cent stake that has prevented Woolworths of South Africa, an 88 per cent shareholder, taking unfettered control. He is unlikely to be prised free by the share issue Country Road has announced to help fund its $172 million acquisition of the Witchery group from Gresham Private Equity.
The 1-for-2 offer at $2.66 a share will raise $92 million and Woolworths (no relation to Australia’s Woolies) says it will pay $81 million for its share.
If the Lew family company, Australian Retail Investments, does not pay about $10.9 million to take up the balance of the offer, Woolworths will move above 90 per cent and be in a position to compulsorily acquire ARI’s blocking stake at ”fair value”.
Woolworths says it has not yet decided if it would do so, but for the Lews, shutting down the option is a no-brainer.
Solomon Lew’s son Peter built Witchery up and sold it to Gresham private equity in 2006 for $160 million and the family would see Witchery – the upmarket Mimco bag and accessories chain that was bought in 2007 after Gresham took over – and Country Road itself as potential acquisitions if the price is right, by the family company, ARI, or perhaps by their listed Premier-Just group.
Woolworths has shown staying power too, but if it decides to sell, the Lews are in the box seat as long as they hold a blocking stake. Any other buyer would, like Woolworths, be unable to move to 100 per cent ownership.
Growth in Elk City stems from new oil boom NewsOK.com The rapid population growth quickly filled the available housing, driving up rent and property values. “The RV parks are full,” Elk City Economic Development Director Shane Frye said. “The temporary housing outside the city is full. We have trailer parks … See all stories on this topic »
Population, poverty, politics and RH bill Inquirer.net On the other hand, the State acknowledges the difficulties posed for development by rapid population growth, especially among the poorest Filipinos. But it has been immobilized from effectively addressing the issue by the Catholic hierarchy’s hard-line … See all stories on this topic »
