[Peakoil-website-changes] [DokuWiki] page changed: senate_oil_inquiry_submission

[peakoil at act-peakoil.org]

A page in your DokuWiki was added or changed. Here are the details:

Date        : 2006/02/23 21:53
Browser     : Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050513 Debian/1.7.8-1
IP-Address  : 10.0.0.1
Hostname    : nermal
Old Revision: http://act-peakoil.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=senate_oil_inquiry_submission&rev=1140686806
New Revision: http://act-peakoil.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=senate_oil_inquiry_submission
Edit Summary: 
User        : 

@@ -63,8 +63,110 @@
  oil supply policies.**
  
  =====   b. potential of new sources of oil and alternative transport fuels to meet a significant share of Australia’s fuel demands, taking into account technological developments and environmental and economic costs =====
   
+ 
+ Rather than delving into the details of various options, it may be
+ better to outline some basic principles we think should apply when
+ finding ways to ameliorate Peak Oil.
+ 
+ ==== Physical constraints ====
+ 
+ 
+   * Energy return on energy invested (EROEI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EROEI)
+ An energy source or form of energy storage is, in general, only
+ worthwhile if the energy obtained from it is greater than the energy
+ required to collect, extract and ready it for use.
+ Presently there is doubt that ethanol is worth producing as a fuel
+ for this reason since it requires diesel and oil-derived fertilisers
+ to farm and transport the ethanol feedstock.
+ 
+   * Energy quality
+ Fuel quality is a rough measure of how easy it is to transform the
+ fuel into usable energy. Oil in particular has a very high quality,
+ due to its high energy density and being a liquid. Sometimes it is
+ worth performing an operation with low EROEI if it create a fuel with
+ a higher quality – e.g. turning coal into oil.
+ 
+   * The Laws of Thermodynamics
+ In essence, that energy is neither created nor destroyed, but is
+ transformed into other forms of energy, and inexorably, tends to be
+ dissipated as unusable heat energy. Usable energy is known as exergy.
+ Unusable energy is entropy. No thermodynamic system can operate at
+ 100% efficiency, and is almost always at a fraction of that. More
+ energy is lost with each additional step in a process.
+ 
+ 
+ ==== Broader principles ====
+ 
+ 
+   * Scientific approach
+ Science is a process of inquiry, not a set of laws or absolute
+ truths. As such, government should avoid slipping into complacent
+ acceptance of beliefs (popular or otherwise) in contradiction of
+ observational evidence. An inquisitive and open-minded approach is
+ required for finding the best options.</P>
+ 
+   * The Limits to Growth
+ There are limits to exponential growth in a finite system. Growth
+ tends to overshoot if there is inadequate information about available
+ resource supplies and pollution sinks, or a lack of foresight.  In
+ the worst case there is the possibility of die-off. So if we have no
+ idea how much oil is left, yet continue to grow the economy as fast
+ as we can, disaster awaits us. There is an inexorable tendency for
+ new and insurmountable limits to emerge as a result of attempting to
+ evade other limits. This was the crucial but usually forgotten
+ insight of //Limits to Growth// ( Meadows et al, 2004).
+ Techno-fixes cannot solve all of our biggest problems.
+ 
+ 
+   * Appropriate use of economics
+ Economics offers some insights into human behaviour and how to
+ achieve ends in the most efficient way. However economics is
+ subordinate to ecology and needs to be seen in that context. There is
+ no economy without the environment.
+ 
+ 
+   * Avoiding the tragedy of the commons
+ Shared resources can be depleted or polluted by people who do not
+ feel the full costs of their own actions, but when everyone does the
+ same thing, everyone suffers &ndash; costs are externalised. Economic
+ systems need to account of this by internalising externalities e.g.
+ by taxing or banning.
+ 
+   * Intergenerationl equity
+ Governments needs to make human development sustainable so that
+ older people do not advantage themselves at the expense of the
+ younger and those yet to come.
+ 
+   * Wealth equality
+ This relates to the externalisation of costs. The wealthy usually
+ have a greater say as to how society works, but if they can shield
+ themselves from the consequences of their behaviour then they have
+ little incentive to conserve resources and reduce pollution (unless
+ they are particularly conscientious).
+ 
+   * The Precautionary Principle - the problem of insufficient information
+ In assessing the cost and benefits of action, government must
+ assess the risk of worst case scenarios eventuating and account for
+ this. For instance, even if there is only a 10% probability of
+ disastrous climate change, prudent insurance risk management would
+ recommend taking preventative action. Similarly for Peak Oil. As the
+ WA transport minister said (MacTiernan
+ 2004)
+ "It is also certain that the cost of preparing too early is nowhere near
+ the cost of not being ready on time.
+ MacTiernan, A (2004). Is there an oil crisis?. Ministerial speech opening the STC
+ "Oil: Living with Less" conference, Perth, 9th August 2004.
+  http://www.ministers.wa.gov.au/Speeches/A09/OIL.pdf
+ 
+   * The Polluter Pays principle
+ In general, those responsible for pollution should bear the cost
+ of the remedy and behaviour change, rather than those afflicted by
+ the pollution.
+ 
+ **Recommendation: government adopt the above principles prior to
+ evaluating or committing to measures to ameliorate Peak Oil.**
  
  =====   c. flow-on economic and social impacts in Australia from continuing rises in the price of transport fuel and potential reductions in oil supply =====
   
  ==== Sustainability and PowerDown ====



-- 
This mail was generated by DokuWiki at
http://act-peakoil.org/dokuwiki/