Seems like good common sense, but I fear unlikely to happen until some economic imperative forces the hand of our "short event horizon" politicians.

Yes. The closest we have come to practicality is the hybrid vehicle, but you can buy a small car for a third of the price which has the same economy using petrol only, without expensive batteries to worry about. The geewhiz of solar, electric and hydrogen is still in the Boys' Own Annual category. The Government's 'big idea' is ethanol which might or might not be safe to use over 10%, and this is less efficient than petrol, merely putting more cost onto the motorist with only a dubious benefit to the environment.

While I agree in the main with Dr Moriarty's view, there is one
additional point worth making. It is important that Australia,
and the rest of the world, continue to undertake research on
alternatives. At present there are many, and most come
well short of being real alternatives- yes it has problems but crude
is really just too good a fuel. To reduce net energy
consumption by becoming more efficient can only work if we also reduce our rate
of population growth. This is unlikely to happen, not soon anyway. What
we save is often taken up by increases in our population. So
we need to do research into not only alternative fuels but altnerative
transport modes as well. Understanding why people travel is also important.
This research must be done now; to this there is no alternative.
Dr Honnery.

Things will only start to happen when economics forces them to happen. The solution will be a number of methods. LPG powered vehicles are a reality now, people are free to convert their cars anytime. The reserves in the NW of Aus are huge. Biodiesel created from canola and more suitable genotypes is another option. Growing more on country which now grows wool, which nobody wants, is another option.

More efficient hybrid vehicles is yet another option, but none of these will happen until it hurts the old back pocket and people are forced to consider them. Oil from algae, using brackish water is yet another option with huge potential.

Rather then take a defeatist attitude, we should see the huge economic opportunities that will created by change!

I don't understand the problem, as oil becomes more scarce and capacity does not grow with demand, price will increase. As price increases, the economic incentive to diversify energy resources will accelerate. There is no need to interfere, the market will naturally adapt.

Basic research takes time, this has been done into alternative energy (solar, wind, bio-energy).
The next step is to make it economically viable with the volume of product required for the market.
This takes infrastructure of a large size and complexity to move the raw material, produce and then deliver the end product.
These major projects takes a lot of money and time. Large infrastructure projects take years before they are complete and return a profit.
The big question is time. How much lead time in making the bio-plant before it becomes online and how much time do we have left before the price of current crue oil becomes a economic empedament (high cost and lack of supply).
Most major infrastructure costs in the past have come from government budgets from our taxes which we all benifit.
We need to invest now in the bio infrastructre, public transport, interstate rail and energy efficency.
Yes the market leads but sometimes it needs to be pushed in the right direction as the lead times are measured in 5-10 year for these projects.
Australia has to make the decisions soon otherwise our standard of living and economic future will be limited.

TRAVEL DEMAND MANAGEMENT

Saving Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Fuel Consumption & Traffic Congestion can all be addressed with the above Action!

Where can we begin you may ask? I belive we should address solutions that bring instant relief to our current problems, primarily. And then address Oil shortage & prices. As the current FUEL scare, has ineffect made people STOP THINK & LOOK for an alternative. Government, Federal & Local should be using this valuable time to lead our nation by example by introducing new programs initially within their establishments and then within the community via WORKPLACE schemes to reduce the amount of fuel guzzeling vehicles on our roads.

Let's start setting up a networked Transport system that streamlines all modes of transport. CARPOOLING is a great way to tackle most of the problems by: Linking one mode of transport to another. Reducing SOV's [Single Occupant Vehicles], Carpool portals at all Rail Terminals with PARK N RIDE facilities, introduce more CARPOOL LANES & Prefered Carpool Parking, Discounts for Carpool Parking, Legislate that all DEVELOPERS need to have a TDM plan for Office Towers and Housing Estates especially if they are not serviced by public transport. Take a look around , next time your stuck in PEAK HOUR TRAFFIC Who are they Workers in SOV's Let's get our employers involved in tackling the problem! Have a think...Let's hear your thoughts?

Bea Green

Verious posts commenting on the article (that laid the problem out conciselyn and accurately) talk about limiting demand. One way to achieve this is through price. An oil depletion levy could be levied on liquid fuels that would result in retail prices that based on the oil price being say $200 per barrel. To compensate income taxes could be reduced by a commensurate amount, probably from the bottom up, because increased fuel cost hurts more at lower income levels.

Europes car fleet achieves nearly 50% better mileage than Australia because they have adopted diesel much more enthusiastically. If we want to reduce demand Australia could adopt Euro diesel products "off the self" easily and quickly.

There is a second strategic reason for encouraging diesel: Australia has huge natural gas reserves that could be converted to diesel using existing technolology. This is needed because the gas deposits are in the north west of Australia and shipping LNG is energy intensive (a third of the gas extracted is used for refrigeration, compression and distribution) and transporting diesel is much easier and makes use of existing infrastructure. Rather than exporting this valuable resource we should be changing our cars to diesel and converting the gas to diesel and using it ourselves. Import replacement is often better for forex than exports.