Victoria on a loser in Bali
Nov 26th, 2007 by admin
Ray Evans
November 26, 2007 - 12:48PM
Victoria on a loser in Bali. The state’s huge reserves of brown coal. cannot be locked away, writes Ray Evans.
KEVIN Rudd will go to the Bali conference on Sunday and ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Victorians should be concerned at this prospect, since the pressure on Australia from the European Union and from our local Greens to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide will increase.
Victoria is blessed with the largest brown coal resource in the world. The coal is free of sulphur and has low ash content. It is ideal for conversion to diesel fuel.
The largest deposits are in the Gippsland Basin, where the coal is up to 330 metres thick.
Rich seams also occur in the Strzelecki Ranges, between Melbourne and Bacchus Marsh, and in the Otway Ranges.
This energy resource has barely been scratched. We are stewards of an energy resource of Middle Eastern proportions.
Our brown coal does, however, have a very high moisture content and this means that a significant proportion of the heat energy contained within the coal is used to drive off the water before the pulverised coal is injected into the boilers.
This is why the Greens hate brown coal so passionately. It has the highest output of carbon dioxide per unit of electricity generated in Australia.
The demonisation of carbon dioxide is one of the most bizarre stories of the 20th century.
The Greens and their fellow travellers on both sides of politics tell us that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will lead to global warming of catastrophic dimensions.
As greenhouse gases go, carbon dioxide does not rate with water vapour, it is a beneficent gas - a gas essential to all life on the planet, but it has been
accused, tried and sentenced.
And the Greens want us to lock up our brown coal resource and throw away the key.
But we should think about the implications. China and India are setting out with all deliberate speed on the path to modernity.
Modernity means, above all else, cheap electricity and cheap fuel for motor cars.
Brown coal can be used to produce diesel fuel for about $40 per barrel.
Australia will find it very difficult to say to either India or to China that this huge resource over which we have stewardship is to be locked up in order to satisfy the superstitious fantasies of the lawyers, the doctors, and their wives, in electorates such as Wentworth or Flinders.
Prime Minister Rudd will need all the skill in Mandarin he can muster to get away with that.
source from
http://business.theage.com.au/victoria-on-a-loser-in-bali/20071125-1cq3.html