[Peakoil] EC sees peak oil coming
Antony Barry
tony at tony-barry.emu.id.au
Wed Jan 10 17:20:45 EST 2007
From: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/ec-looking-back-to-the-
future/2007/01/09/1168104983932.html
EC looking back to the future
David Gow, Brussels
January 10, 2007
THE European Commission will today call for "a new industrial
revolution", promoting renewable energy and nuclear power to replace
dwindling fossil fuels and combat climate change.
Its controversial proposals, outlined in a series of papers on energy
policy and competition, are partly based on research published on
Monday showing the price of oil and gas is likely to double to $US110
($A145) a barrel as global reserves plateau.
Coal, it says, will stage a comeback prompted by new carbon capture
and storage systems.
The commission's white paper foresees European Union energy imports
jumping to 65 per cent of consumption by 2030, when 84 per cent of
gas and 93 per cent of oil will come from overseas, making the drive
to increase the use of renewables, hydrogen and nuclear inexorable.
Its promotion of atomic energy, partly for use in producing hydrogen,
is the most controversial aspect of its proposals, as nuclear power
is banned in countries such as Austria and is being phased out in
others such as Germany and Sweden. It is couched in implicit terms —
not least because an EU-wide poll shows only 20 per cent backing for
nuclear power.
With the commission setting a minimum target of a 20 per cent
reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020, nuclear power is seen in the
research as providing 30 per cent of Europe's energy demand by 2050.
Renewables such as wind power would provide slightly more than a
fifth. But, in a low-carbon scenario, these two would fuel three-
quarters of power generation, with half of the rest coming from
plants with carbon dioxide capture and storage.
The commission's plans are accompanied by proposed measures to break
up the monopolist stranglehold of huge energy groups such as France's
EDF and Germany's Eon on the internal market and to introduce more
competition. But the commission has not yet reached full agreement on
the proposal among the 27 commissioners.
Most are said to favour forcing integrated energy groups, deemed to
be colluding to prevent new entrants, to sell their electricity
transmission and gas-pipeline networks.
A minority, grouped around President Jose Manuel Barroso, would
prefer to see these networks retained in their ownership but handed
over to an independent systems operator.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was asked in an interview
yesterday about energy issues, said the public should not be asked to
adopt a "hair shirt" approach to tackling climate change.
Mr Blair recycles his rubbish in Downing Street but says he will not
give up his foreign holidays to save the planet.
The Prime Minister — who has just returned from a controversial
winter break at the home of Bee Gees star Robin Gibb in Florida — was
asked by Sky News if he had thought of setting an example by forgoing
a long-haul flight to Barbados for his summer holiday. Mr Blair said
he would be reluctant to give up his holidays abroad — and suggested
it would not go down well with his family.
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