Category Archives: Resources

Puzzle of the missing cap rock at the “Flagship” South West Hub CCS Project near Collie Western Australia

Tom Harley at his Pindan Post blog – sequestering scientific stupidity… – found this fascinating story dated 31 Jan 2014 – Prospective carbon capture site lacks ceiling
Reading a bit deeper into the origins of this I find this article at the CO2CRC – South West Hub Project, Western Australia (CCS Flagship Project)
Talking up their “Flagship Project” which “…has successfully identified their primary injection area and drilled and cored a stratigraphic well for detailed assessment.” The reader might assume another triumph for public service science – visions of taxpayers applauding in the main street of Harvey.
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I would have thought there has been over a century many holes drilled into the Perth coastal plain re water resources, oil & gas exploration and the broad geology should be well known.
Surely if there were any doubts about the existence of a cap rock at the Harvey 1 site – then this should have been confirmed with a cheap shallow hole first.

BBC – Climate change and EU energy challenges – fails to mention “elephant in room” increase in German coal use

The BBC’s Gavin Hewitt says – “Thirdly, Angela Merkel’s U-turn. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 the German chancellor took an usually swift decision: Germany moved away from nuclear power and bet its future on renewables.” Interesting that Bloomberg reports “Ten new hard-coal power stations, or 7,985 megawatts, are scheduled to start producing electricity in the next two years, according to information from German grid regulator Bundesnetzagentur and operators.”
This graphic from the IEA shows the mix of electricity generation in Germany as of 2011.

You can see nuclear has been in decline for a few years. The European Nuclear Society says that eight German nuclear plants were shut down in 2011 and in 2012 the nine remaining plants generated near 100TWh or about one sixth of German electricity.
For an up to date view on coal fired electricity generation in Germany – Speigel said two weeks ago – “That means that coal plants are making up for the bulk of the energy production lost due to the 2011 shutdown of eight nuclear plants,…”
Bloomberg say the numbers mean – “The 10 new units will boost German hard coal generation capacity by 33 percent to 32,432 megawatts from 24,447 megawatts as of Oct. 16, regulator data show.” So in the next few years the percentage of German electricity generated from coal could challenge all time highs of 1983.
Funny that Gavin Hewitt and the BBC found it easy not to mention the expansion of coal use – but went on for paragraphs about the small renewables sector.

Global fire maps from NASA which put Australian bushfires in perspective

A year ago a reader sent in this link to an animated map of global wildfires as seen from space. Australian forest fires are only minor in comparison to seasonal fires in equatorial Africa, Southern Africa, South America and many parts of Asia! For a start there are often lightning strike fires over much of Australia, most of these burn themselves out naturally and are just part of the ecology.
Jan 2003 You can see the fire that impacted Canberra but it is minor compared to what is happening elsewhere.

Feb 2009 Black Saturday fires are very minor signatures on a global scale.

Andrew Bolt has asked if we are becoming climate pussies. Given media reporting of bushfire I think you could argue that.

Australian Federal Govt spends about equal amounts ~$180million on both Antarctic programs and all Geoscience Australia onshore “mineral and oil & gas resources” programs

For one lot of $180mill we improve scientific knowledge of Antarctica, get invites to Antarctic and climate change conferences, all of which means close to a net zero to the Australian economy.
For the other tranche of ~$180mill (download pdf) we improve the prospects for mineral discoveries that will extend our resources industries that prop up a huge slice of our standard of living. So difficult to decide how to balance these competing priorities.
There is also about $30million spent on the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority.
Oh to be dictator for a day.

Northern Territory Government says the Henbury Carbon Farming project was “illegal”

Readers know that I have several articles on the Henbury Carbon Farm venture which failed last year.
Last September I missed this ABC news 3 Sep 2013 – NT Government says Henbury carbon farming was “illegal”
Quote – [The Primary Industry Minister Willem Westra van Holthe told Northern Territory Parliament the project was illegal, because carbon farming is a non-pastoral use.]
There is a Ministerial media release too
Taxpayers of Australia ponied up $9million – to help buy Henbury.
For those not up with every intricacy of downunder politics.
Land in Australia is managed by States and Territories, not the Federal Govt.
The Henbury carbon farming project commenced in the Northern Territory at a time the NT had a Labor Govt – and the Australian Federal Govt was GreenLabor.
The NT election of 25 August 2012 returned a Country Liberal Party Govt which is to the right of Labor.
In early 2013 news emerged that Henbury had failed.
On 7 Sep 2013 Australia voted in a new Federal Liberal-Country Coalition Govt.
I am not trying to imply that the change in the NT Govt caused anything at Henbury.
Despite these changes the mystery of why Henbury failed continues.
What a classic GreenLabor shambles – I wonder what the entire disaster has cost.

Renewables not slowing expansion of coal mining by China

Article by Reuters – China approves massive new coal capacity despite pollution fears – lots of numbers to digest.
Quote – “The replacement of coal hasn’t been as fast as expected, and other sources of energy are not only expensive but also face a lot of technical and environmental problems,” said UOB’s Helen Lau, senior commodities analyst with UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong.
A reminder of Chinese emissions –

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Update major national carbon dioxide emissions through 2012

Chart data from – BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2013
On the day the Australian Climate Authority puts out a load of twaddle it is useful to remind ourselves of the facts of where Australia stands in the global carbon dioxide emissions stakes.

The new Australian Federal Govt is itching to sack this GreenLabor stacked quango – Climate Change Authority – but has to wait until newly elected Senators take the seats 1st July 2014 – unless Labor agrees to vote with the Govt.
The critical question for Australia is – why should we risk our puny little economy by making harmful changes when Asian emissions continue to skyrocket.
We could shut Australia down and return to the Stone Age – the effect on global emissions would not be noticed.

Tasmanian bushfires report says according to ABC news – agencies not prepared – confusion between police and fire service. – Who would have thought so ?

The ABC commentary is here –
Key points
Agencies not prepared for a major emergency
Confusion between police and fire service about who was in charge
Fire service failed to act on computer simulations predicting Dunalley could be devastated by the Forcett fire
Road closures could have been handled better
Lives probably put at risk
103 recommendations
Government accepts 72 recommendations, 31 approved in principle
30 prioritised for immediate start
Fuel reduction planning begins immediately
the report is introduced here – note the 1967 history – www site to download the pdf report in two parts total ~16MB.
Subsequent ABC news items as various parties position themselves – Opposition wants Tasmanian minister to quit over bushfire crisis – Firefighters take a swipe at January bushfire inquiry findings – Premier rejects Opposition claims fire fuel warnings ignored.
After the devastation of the Dunalley fire 4 Jan 2013 I posted this – Question about large fixed wing air tankers, water bombers in Australia now – Dunalley fire timeline. The report Appendix has timelines which show the Forcett fire (which ran and destroyed Dunalley on the 4th) was known to be burning on the 3rd.
I am saying this is a case where a four engined air tanker could have put out the Forcett fire on the 3rd. Too often our fire services seem to “accompany fires” – exhausting their resources. For example Yass and SE Cooma last summer – both of which burnt for several days – and the town of Yass was lucky not to come under direct attack. In both cases I am saying four engined air tankers would have been useful in suppressing those fires.
As a nation we spend $Billions on border protection but can not see the advantage in spending a few $Million each summer to charter a four engined water bomber or two. Technology that should probably be controlled by the RAAF.
IMHO the Victorian fire hierarchy on Black Saturday 7 Feb 2009 was in some disarray to say the least – possibly caught out by having their focus to the SE of Melbourne that morning and never properly catching up with catastrophic events to the north through the afternoon.
In the case of the Canberra fires 18 January 2003; these had been burning in NSW bush to the west and north west of the ACT for over a week – yet residents had little advance warning from authorities of the attack that Saturday afternoon.

USA – EPA Concedes That Climate Change Is No Real Problem And That Renewables Just Can’t Cut It

That is the preferred title for the blog article by Tony from Oz.
Where he points out how the EPA is making new coal fired electricity generation next to impossible in the USA; while setting the emissions bar just at the level that permits gas fired generation.