The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand | The Bullroarer

3 comments on The Bullroarer - Friday 12th December 2008

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Cretaceous on December 12, 2008 - 11:43pm

I get a wry smile from the thought of Brisbane having a nut-fuelled public transport system...
;-)

But this is not enough to assuage the shock of reading about where NSW's Federal Infrastructure grants are going to go...

NSW big winner in $4.7b spend

...Of the $4.7 billion, NSW will receive about $1.5 billion for road, rail and education projects, the largest of which will be an upgrade to the rail networks in the Hunter Valley.

Rail capacity to move coal and other commodities through the Hunter Valley will be doubled through six projects, with the aim of increasing coal to the port of Newcastle from 97 million tonnes a year to 200 million tonnes.

The upgrade would cost about $1 billion...

So our billion dollars of taxpayer money is going into allowing an extra 100 million tonnes of coal to be burnt per year. That's about 300 million tonnes of CO2, which is more than *double* the 25% CO2 reduction that the KRudd government has just announced for after 2020.

Gee, lucky that the extra coal doesn't represent "our" CO2...
;-)

Yes, we are "big winners". I predict lots of "job creation" in the frantic construction of dykes once the sea starts coming up.

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shaygb on December 14, 2008 - 11:49pm

Half a billion to upgrade the Hunter coal rail system is absurd. Add this to the 4 billion dollars Rudd is giving to the coal industry as part of the compensation for the GHG reduction strategy and coal's future is assured - the rest of Australia, notsomuch.

FYI - I figure it is costing about $2.4m to produce a MW of wind powered electricty these days. $4.5b could have produced 1800 MW of wind power. A drop in the ocean considering coal-fired power stations produce roughly 30,000 MW of our power but at least it would be a step in the right direction.

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