Queensland Election
Mark at Larvatus Prodeo has been doing a sterling job blogging about the upcoming Queensland State Election.
I have only to add that I’ve been disappointed—if not actually particularly surprised—that Beattie has been touting ethanol as an alternative fuel source so heavily, despite its own substantial environmental costs. It would be nice to see Labor offer sane energy policy that’s not simply beholden to a different set of corporate lobby groups than those in the Liberal camp. But I’m not holding my breath.
edit: fixed final link.
Your Comments
Glen writes:
hey nick the second ethanol link “environmental costs” links to the same page as the first link “ethanol as alternative fuel source”. I’d be interested about which evironmental costs you are referring!?
Posted: 21 08 2006 - 16:07 | Permanent link to this comment
Nick Caldwell writes:
Oh, sod. OK, I’ll edit the article. Just gimme a sec. Sigh. Etc.
Posted: 21 08 2006 - 16:15 | Permanent link to this comment
Nick Caldwell writes:
My currently un-sourced understanding is also that most fertilisers use petroleum by-products in their formulation. I’ll try and find a cite for that, though.
Posted: 21 08 2006 - 16:19 | Permanent link to this comment
John Gunders writes:
Ethanol certainly has its costs, but it is less damaging than petrol and doesn’t require a fundamental retooling of transport infrastructure—which, frankly, isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
So until there is a viable, clean resource, ethanol is the lesser of two evils.
Posted: 22 08 2006 - 19:14 | Permanent link to this comment
Mark Bahnisch writes:
Thanks, Nick.
I’ve been enjoying myself more than I thought I would because the Coalition have really contributed an even higher level of farce than Queensland politics watchers are used to!
Posted: 23 08 2006 - 01:40 | Permanent link to this comment
Robert Merkel writes:
Nick Caldwell, you’re right, but it’s a question of how much they use, and more importantly the total energy used to produce the ethanol compared to how much you get out. For sugar, at least, you get a lot more energy out than you put in – the general figure I see quoted is about eight times more.
However, the more important issue with regards to ethanol is the ultimate amount of ethanol we can realistically produce in Australia. I did some estimates of this a couple of years ago, and if you used Australia’s entire sugar crop for ethanol production, you’d get about 5-6% of our liquid fuel needs, and cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 1%.
In any case, the Brazilians can make ethanol a heck of a lot cheaper than we can, and the net greenhouse impact is essentially the same if it’s made there or here. So if we were serious about bioethanol as a greenhouse-reduction initiative we’d import it from Brazil. But only domestically-produced bioethanol gets the concessional tax treatment…
It’s pork for the Queensland sugar industry, nothing more or less.
But then, if you want boneheaded energy policy from Queensland Labor try Beattie’s objections to nuclear energy aqnd uranium mining. His objection? Not the safety or proliferation objections that the rest of Labor generally relies on (which I disagree with, but that’s at least a defensible position in my book). Increasing uranium exports, and a domestic nuclear power industry, could damage the coal industry. Beattie was last seen discussing an industry assistance package to help out buggy whip manufacturers who’ve been struggling recently….
Posted: 23 08 2006 - 05:17 | Permanent link to this comment
Mark Bahnisch writes:
There’s no doubt that Beattie’s approach is effectively Queensland mercantilism.
Posted: 23 08 2006 - 09:26 | Permanent link to this comment
Nick Caldwell writes:
I used to have a theory that Beattie got away with being very slightly socially progressive by being really crassly populist on nearly everything else. I was torn between admiring the technique and being a bit sickened by it. But I’ve my head in the clouds for a while—I don’t know how much he’s actually done on the social progress front recently.
Posted: 23 08 2006 - 09:41 | Permanent link to this comment
Nick Caldwell writes:
For instance, I’m not really equipped to judge whether Queensland’s hospitals are as bad as is being claimed, or if it’s just the usual media beat-up.
Posted: 23 08 2006 - 09:45 | Permanent link to this comment
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