The Oil Drum

Green buildings are an important component in the transition to an energy efficient future, so I think its worth pointing out new developments that make energy efficiency a design priority.

The City of Sydney has outlined a vision for 2030 that aims to redevelop a lot of areas on the city fringes in a sustainable way. The first development to fit into this new scheme of things is a project planned for the old Kent (CUB) Brewery site, to the west of Central Station, known as Fraser's Broadway.

It was interesting to see today's editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald (the link will succumb to linkrot shortly I'm afraid - I'm not sure what permalink scheme they have for editorials) mentioning "the threat of peak oil clouding the future of motoring" as one of the reasons for giving up on trying to widen sections of traffic clogged Victoria Road and instead commence building the proposed Sydney metro line.

In Sydney today, Bruce Robinson, Convenor of the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil attended a news conference where Lee Rhiannon, Green MLC launched a bill for a NSW Oil Vulnerability Task Force.

ASPO Australia issued their own media release which has been picked up by the Sydney Morning Herald: SMH - Sydney must prepare now for peak oil

Sydneysiders must take serious steps to reduce their vehicle use before future global oil shortages hit, a peak oil study group says.

ASPO Australia's Bruce Robinson has called on the federal and NSW governments to get more cars off the roads before the oil shock hits.

As part of the planned privatisation of most of NSW's power generation and electricity distribution infrastructure, Premier Morris Iemma is proposing to build a new subway system to supplement the existing Sydney rail network. The SMH describes the plan in "Billions for metro lines in asset sale".

THE Iemma Government is finalising plans for as many as five metro subway lines to criss-cross Sydney, to be funded from the sale of further state-owned assets. ...

His comments follow the Government's announcement that it plans to tap funds from the $15 billion sale of part of its electricity assets to help pay for the first subway line - almost certain to be a metro from the Sydney CBD, running under Parramatta Road towards Olympic Park - to be announced next month. This line would be cheaper than the other subway lines proposed as it would not require a harbour crossing, and would be a trade-off for building the M4 East motorway extension, which is subject to strong local opposition.

Parramatta Road, Victoria Road, Anzac Parade and the northern beaches have a serious shortage of fast transport links and there have been long-term proposals to give them all a European-style metro subway system - on which trains are shorter, stations closer and services much more frequent. Details of the metro lines being studied by the Government are unclear. But the Premier, Morris Iemma, said yesterday: "It's not if Sydney gets a metro, but when." ...

The former co-ordinator general of rail Ron Christie proposed to cabinet in 2001 that three metro lines needed to be built by 2020. One would run from Cronulla, through Miranda and Sydney Airport, then to Glebe and Sydney University, crossing the harbour to Willoughby and on to Dee Why via Chatswood. A second line would start at Parramatta and pass along Victoria Road and then through the city to the University of NSW before terminating at Sydenham. His third line was to run from Hoxton Park to Parramatta, then on to Northmead and Baulkham Hills and on to Castlereagh.