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Mar 27

[NY] State Tells Investors That Climate Change May Hurt Its Finances

New York Times, 26 March 2013

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has started to caution investors that climate change poses a long-term risk to the state’s finances. The warning, which is now appearing in the state’s bond offerings, comes as Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, continues to urge that public officials come to grips with the frequency of extreme weather and to declare that climate change is a reality.

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Mar 27

Scientists link frozen spring to dramatic Arctic sea ice loss

The Guardian, 25 March 2013

Climate scientists have linked the massive snowstorms and bitter spring weather now being experienced across Britain and large parts of Europe and North America to the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice. Both the extent and the volume of the sea ice that forms and melts each year in the Arctic Ocean fell to an historic low last autumn, and satellite records published on Monday by the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, show the ice extent is close to the minimum recorded for this time of year.

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Mar 26

Why Did Saudi Arabia Reduce Oil Production?

Early Warning, 25 March 2013

I'm a bit slow in getting to this, but there now seems to be a bit of a mystery about Saudi oil production (latest data shown above). In mid 2011 through mid 2012, Saudi production was hovering a little below 10mbd (averaging all data sources). It started to drop a little bit last fall, but then in November and December it took a really sharp dive, and now seems to have stabilized at or a little above 9mbd.

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Mar 26

Iraq to Fall Short of 2014 Target for Oil Output, Lawmaker Says

Bloomberg, 25 March 2013

Iraq, the second-largest producer in OPEC, won’t reach its target of pumping 4.5 million barrels of oil a day by next year and plans to announce revised production goals in April, senior government officials said.

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Mar 26

Hauling in the sprawl

The Age, 26 March 2013

Melbourne is frequently cited as the world's most liveable city. Should you live within, say, 20 kilometres of the city's centre, it is not hard to grasp why Victoria's capital wins such an accolade. It is an eclectic metropolis, throbbing with multicultural diversity, with art and sport and music, with parks and architecture and a gastronomic cornucopia. But Melbourne has an insidious problem. Unrelenting, poorly serviced urban sprawl means life in the outer suburbs and on the fringe can be unduly grim. This is not how it was supposed to be or ought to be.

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Mar 26

Difference Engine: End the ethanol tax

The Economist, 25 March 2013

THE uneasy relationship between America’s corn (maize) farmers and its oil refiners is fraying at the edges. The source of the conflict is the amount of corn-derived ethanol which has to be blended into petrol as an oxygenator, to boost the fuel’s octane rating (while also providing a generous off-budget subsidy for corn-growers). The farmers want the amount of ethanol used in petrol to be increased from 10% to 15% of each gallon sold at the pump. The distillers argue that diluting petrol with that amount of ethanol would damage engines and leave them liable to lawsuits from motorists and manufacturers alike.

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Mar 26

BCC to challenge ‘ceiling height’ on CBD

Brisbane Times, 26 March 2013

Brisbane City Council will challenge Brisbane Airport Corporation’s 274-metre ‘‘ceiling height’’ over the inner-city, claiming that raising it to 300 metres would mean six extra floors and an extra $624 million in high-rise investment per year. It has written to Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese, noting a report that says raising the height to 300 metres could be done without compromising safety.

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Mar 26

Old planes keep flying as Dreamliners stay on ground

Sydney Morning Herald, 25 March 2013

Japan's All Nippon Airways will delay retiring four aircraft to help maintain services already hit by the grounding of its entire fleet of troubled 787 Dreamliners, Kyodo News reported on Saturday. International regulators grounded all Boeing Dreamliner jets in January after a battery on a Japan Airlines 787 caught fire and forced an ANA flight to make an emergency landing.

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Mar 25

Awash in Misinformation: America’s Domestic Tight Oil ‘Bump’

Huffington Post, 22 March 2013

On March 4, David Frum, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, published an article on CNN.com titled "Peak Oil doomsayers proved wrong" in which he not only claimed there was no danger of a shortage of oil, but also that "our oil problem is that we're producing so much of the stuff that we are changing the planet's climate." Mr. Frum is only the most recent contributor to a growing list of luminaries to declare that we need not worry about any future shortage of crude oil. The only problem with these reassuring proclamations is that the physical evidence does not support them, and does in point of fact, warn of a looming imbalance between supply and demand with troubling implications for the U.S. economy.

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Mar 25

O’Farrell Hands Planning Back To Developers

New Matilda, 25 March 2013

Barry O'Farrell has announced that thousands of new homes will be built in Sydney. Will the community have a say in which suburbs get bulldozed? Greens MLC David Shoebridge on a new low in NSW planning.

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