Dear PeakOilers,

The below is the Austrialian Senate meeting on Peak Oil with Dr. Samsam Bakhtiari, the famous Iranian Chemical Engineer Phd and Peak Oil insider.

Permission always granted by me to copy and paste whatever I write anywhere you want.


http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S9515.pdf

{edited by MQ to remove monster post}

OK, well if you want to plod through my commentary the original monster post is here - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArkBuilders_org/message/1367

So, for 200 billion, a fraction of the cost of the Iraq war, the US could build enough coal to liquids production to replace their entire oil requirement.

I read that these things take 3 to 4 years to build.

What were his complaints again? It's drity. 3 to 4 years is a long time. It could run over budget.

Compare that with, say, the end of civilisation, I know which way I'd be voting to have my tax dollars spent.

This looks like a typical missed opportunity. Standing and saying 'there's no hope, we're all doomed' achieves nothing. The only reaction is to ignore, forget and move on. These senators, in their way, were looking for an acceptable problem and an acceptable solution. What they got was just moaning minnie.

Where were the statements on conservation and not wasting energy?

Where were the statements on nailing down the reality of reserves?

Where was the statements on suburbs and making non car connectivity?

Where was the nuclear power station building?

Where was the biodiesel, particular seawater biodiesel?

Where was the research and particularly development support for new ideas (particular efficient cooling) ?

Where was the hope?


The sarky comments on 'demand destruction' were probably right. Given no other solution, one approach is to try to take certain countries out of the demand side of the equation. That means China, India, the US and South East Asia. The chief way of achieving that is economic.

But don't blame those senators if they were thinking that. After all, where is the acceptable alternative? What have you told them that is useful advice for another potential way.

A much better, more acceptable, and more useful message is needed if such events are to be anything other than mistakes.

No doubt about these pertaining questions on peakoil. However, not only the Australian economy is modelled on the American economy, her entire leadership depends on the political aspiration of the US presidency.

It would take President Bush only a few seconds on the phone to ask his good mate PM John Howard the same questions, you can be sure that all the issues raised by the questions will be addressed appropriately.

Not only Australia, I think the entire world is looking forward to American leadership in peak oil issues.

I do encourage anyone who is interested to read the testimony in the link. It's a concise and non-sensational description of PO and it is interesting to read the responses of the senators, who are well meaning, but clearly behind the curve on the enormity of the issues involved.

The problem with politics in this country is that politicking is what you do when all other avenues haven't panned out.

When you say "this country" do you mean the U.S. or Australia, because here in Texas we are trying to figure out how to convert school buses into SUVs, and PO is not even being discussed for political advantage, it is simply absent from the public discourse.

The Australian government don't have to do anything about peak oil. The country is fossil energy rich. When the crunch comes, we'll just do CTL or convert all the cars to natural gas.

Then we'll get rich exporting coal like we always have but this time with much more profit.

How about uranium. Australia can export that.

"Australia could become an energy superpower" :
http://www.peakoil.com/article17560.html

From what I have gathered, for whatever reason (red tape, bungling, environmental concerns?), the Australian government has done a "good job" of preventing much of the uranium from being extracted so far. That might change in time, however.

I think that the way the Dr Samsam Bakhtiari explains peak oil is very balanced and realistic. It was interesting to note that in his wisdom "little Johnny" (PM John Howard) agreed to sell Australia's natural gas to China for a fixed price! Damn that is stupid even without imminent peak oil that was dumb.

It is very clear to me that the Senators are very new to the concept of peak oil and obviously the immense ramifications of peak oil. Senator Joyce persists in trying to justify biofuels as the fix for this problem even when told they will not make a dent in the problem that is Peak Oil.

I currently live on the Gold Coast which is an hour drive south of Brisbane on the East coast (for those that may not be aware). It is a beautiful place to live but will be decimated shortly if as predicted airlines collapse and air travel becomes a strictly elitist venture. The Gold Coast is very tourism based and extensive unemployment will occur. After reading what Dr Samsam had to say about Perth I am strongly considering relocating my family asap.

Australia has been refered to as the Lucky Country in the past for very different reasons however I think in the not too distant future we will consider ourselves the Lucky Country as the much more overpopulated countries in the world will experience more chaos and mayhem. We will not be unscathed however we will fare far better than pretty much any other country I can think of. My main concern is what will happen when we decide to renege on our deal with China and not sell them our gas so cheaply???