[Peakoil] Debate in ACT Legislative Assembly on "The challenge of adapting a car-based city to a declining oil supply and climate change."

[Antony Barry]

I couldn't see any mention of this in the archives of the list. Did  
anybody on the list talk to Foskey? I presume there are members of  
the list who are also members of the Greens?

The debate is here - http://www.hansard.act.gov.au/hansard/2005/ 
week15/4940.htm

Vicki Dunne also spoke and it was refreshing to see a member of the  
Liberal Party saying -

"Obviously, permanently higher energy costs are a reality. To talk  
about the end of the cheap fossil fuel era is not to engage in  
doomsaying but to echo the sober research of nearly all observers  
outside the more deluded echelons of the oil industry. We are near  
the time of all-time global oil peak production-the point at which no  
increased production is possible-and there will be only gradual  
depletion. The estimates vary but some time between 2005 and 2017  
seems to be the best guess. Of itself this will not produce a sudden  
crisis, unless there is politically-inspired panic on other grounds,  
but it will mean a permanent rise in the cost of energy, however  
generated. There are not going to be many cheap energy alternatives.  
Hydrogen energy at this stage is out of the question, if only because  
hydrogen requires more energy to produce than it returns.
Natural gas supplies are at greater risk of depletion than oil  
supplies. Wind and solar will only produce a fraction of what we are  
currently using, let alone what we will use-especially with the  
growth of industrialised economies like India and China-a...."



Simon Corbell responded for the Government.


Tony

......
ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey Media Release

Thurs 15 Dec 2005

===================
Oil Era Ending - Territory needs to move
===================

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey has raised the challenge of making our city  
less dependent on cars as a Matter of Public Importance in the ACT  
Legislative Assembly today.
	
"Climate change is a greater threat to world security than terrorism,  
which should give us the political imperative to reduce emissions.  
But the price of oil is rising as oil supplies run out, and that  
provides an immediate economic incentive as well" Dr Foskey said today.

"Addressing our over-reliance on cars is an urgent task. 2008 was to  
be the target year for reducing greenhouse gases for the ACT (that  
target was dropped by the Stanhope Government). It is also the year  
in which oil supply is expected to peak."

"The ACT Government has a number of policy instruments it can use to  
work with Canberra people to make our city more liveable, more  
sustainable and less car reliant."

"Among the strategies that the ACT Government could already be  
pursuing are:
·	Reduced sales tax, registration fees and parking charges for fuel  
efficient, low emission vehicles.
·	Shared use vehicle systems incorporated into new housing developments
·	Combining car-free days with free bus tickets
·	Revitalisation of local centres
·	Investment in light rail and integrated demand-responsive public  
transport
·	Local production of goods and produce
·	Increased availability of bike-safe parking.

"There is no shortage of actions that governments can and should be  
doing. We are facing unavoidable pressure for change, but that change  
will be much easier if Government takes the lead" Dr Foskey said.


================================
Roland Manderson   Media Advisor
ACT   Greens    MLA  Deb  Foskey
Legislative Assembly for the ACT
ph(02)62050551      m 0412241379
==== www.act.greens.org.au =====

Source at http://act.greens.org.au/public/?p=322

phone : 02 6241 7659 | mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
mobile: 04 1242 0397 | http://tony-barry.emu.id.au