Energy sources - May 10
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Greenhouse crackdown scuppers Kipper gas field (Australia)
Mandi Zonneveldt, Herald Sun (Australia)
A GREENHOUSE crackdown by the State Government has left plans to develop the giant Kipper gas field in Victoria's Bass Strait floundering.
Planning Minister Justin Madden has told ExxonMobil that it must provide information on the viability of capturing and storing CO2 from the project before the government will approve the development.
The amber light is an about-face on the Government's position last year, when it gave ExxonMobil a "use it or lose it" ultimatum, refusing to renew the company's retention licence over the field.
The Kipper field, discovered in 1986, is the largest undeveloped gas find in southern Australia but ExxonMobil has had little interest in commercialising it because of the low domestic gas price and its already large gas reserves in Bass Strait.
(8 May 2007)
U.S.’s thirst for liquid natural gas growing
Massive projects under way despite environmental, safety concerns
Associated Press via MSNBC
...While the energy industry regards LNG as a vital step in keeping up with the demand for natural gas in the United States, proposals to build terminals are raising environmental and safety concerns.
argely little used until natural gas prices jumped in recent years, gas cooled to minus 260 degrees and turned into liquid is the only practical way to import supplies from overseas.
Energy companies have proposed 35 new U.S. terminals in 10 states and five offshore areas near the coast. Eighteen terminals have been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The majority of the projects are proposed for the Northeast, which has seen huge price increases for heating oil and public distrust of nuclear power; California, where natural gas is in high demand for power generation; and the Gulf Coast, where LNG processors can easily plug the finished gas product into interstate pipelines.
(8 May 2007)
The Cost Of Coal On The Environment
World Wildlife Fund via Science Daily
A worldwide rush to use “cheap” and dirty coal to supply power is threatening to impose huge costs to the environment and the global economy.
In a new briefing paper released today to coincide with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) meeting about the economic impacts of climate change, WWF shows that the short-term economics which are driving the use of coal to generate cheap power have created a “fool’s paradise” that will lead to profound long-term problems.
The report - Are the costs of using coal higher than the cost of cleaning it up? - outlines the fact that in the last four years, coal use around the world grew by 22% (BP, 2006) - a major factor behind the record 3% per year rise in global CO2 emissions (International Energy Agency (IEA), 2006).
(6 May 2007)
